Late in the afternoon of Jan. 8, angry Iranians took to the streets in large numbers nationwide\u2014from Tehran to Isfahan to the religious city of Mashhad and dozens of smaller cities and towns\u2014chanting and spray-painting slogans that called for the fall of the Islamic Republic and \u201cDeath to the dictator.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This time, the regime forces were ready to play a more lethal role in quelling the protests. Paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the voluntary Basij militia in plainclothes were deployed in large numbers across the country, often armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles. In one instance in west Tehran, security forces were seen with a heavy machine gun mounted on a pickup truck, according to footage verified by Storyful, which is owned by Journal parent News Corp.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n From her campus, Aminian headed out with a group of friends to join a protest. The turning point came around 8:30 p.m. That\u2019s when Iranian authorities shut down the internet across the country and escalated the crackdown, according to witnesses, relatives of victims and human rights groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are pretty confident that a massacre happened starting late Thursday night throughout the country,\u201d said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran. \u201cIt was a complete war zone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p> \u2018A Massacre Happened\u2019: The 24 Hours That Bloodied Iran https:\/\/t.co\/apuKUyfYYA<\/a><\/p>— Souad Mekhennet (@smekhennet) January 15, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>