Iran’s state media say dozens of members of the security forces have been killed during protests against an economic crisis, as the parliament speaker warns the United States and Israel of retaliatory strikes if Washington attacks the country.
State television said on Sunday that 30 members of the police and security forces were killed in Isfahan province and six others in Kermanshah in western Iran in the latest riots.
The semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported that 109 security personnel had been killed in the protests across the country.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society, meanwhile, said a staff member died during an attack on one of its relief buildings in Gorgan, the capital of Golestan province.
State media also reported that a mosque was set on fire in Mashhad in eastern Iran on Saturday night.
The casualty figures were reported as Iranian authorities stepped up efforts to quell the country’s largest protests in years, which have seen thousands of people take to the streets in anger over the soaring cost of living and inflation.
The Ministry of Interior said the “riots” are gradually subsiding, while the attorney general has warned that those involved in the unrest could face the death penalty.
On Saturday, Ali Larijani, a top security official, accused some demonstrators of “killing people or burning some people, which is very similar to what ISIS does”, referring to the armed group ISIL.
Hassan Ahmadian, an academic at Tehran University, told Al Jazeera that the demonstrations that started two weeks ago turned violent on Thursday, calling it “one of the scariest days in Iran, including in Tehran”.
“In the past two days, we saw the shrinking of those events because, of course, there are clashes and confrontations with those who resort to violence,” he said.
“People also started going away from those kinds of violent activities,” the academic added.
“The majority of Iranians are not happy with the economics in Iran, but a majority of them are not happy with violence as well,” Ahmadian noted.
Meanwhile, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian addressed economic plans and “people’s demands” in an interview on Sunday, according to state TV.
Pezeshkian said in the interview that the US and Israel want to “sow chaos and disorder” in Iran by ordering “riots” and called upon Iranians to distance themselves from “rioters and terrorists”.
Human rights groups have urged restraint amid reports of protest-related casualties and mass arrests. The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said at least 51 protesters, including nine children, have been killed by security forces, and hundreds more have been injured.
Opposition activists say the death toll is higher and it includes dozens of protesters.
Threats and counterthreats
Speaking in parliament on Sunday after threats of military strikes by US President Donald Trump if Iranian authorities kill protesters, Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned the US against “a miscalculation”.
“Let us be clear, in the case of an attack