Iran’s Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei issued the stark warning after President Trump pledged to back those peacefully demonstrating across the country.

The Basij were deployed as cannon fodder in human-wave attacks during the Iran-Iraq War. Since then, they have been used as inexpensive volunteer enforcers and agents of repression. They are drawn from “a slender minority” of the country that still believes — young men and boys who are “armed, ideologically brainwashed and easily mobilized.”

Iranian demonstrators set mosques ablaze during heated protests against the country’s Islamic government, according to local video and reports this

In his first comments on the escalating protests since January 3, Khamenei on Friday called the demonstrators “vandals” and “saboteurs”

For a third night in a row, nationwide antigovernment protests rocked Iran, according to witnesses and videos verified by The New York Times, posted on BBC Persian and social media, even as the government intensified its crackdown and the military said it would take to the streets in response to the unrest.

Anti-government protests have erupted across all 31 of Iran’s provinces in a wave of unrest that marks the biggest challenge to the regime in years.

Protests in Iran have hurtled toward the 14-day mark, as more than 115 people have been killed in the revolution, with streets flooded with thousands of people fighting back against the oppressive reg

Tens of thousands of Iranians poured into the streets on Friday night in a second night of mass, nationwide antigovernment protests despite a total internet blackout and threats of a severe crackdown from the senior Iranian leadership.

Video shared on social media on January 9th showed a mosque burning in Tehran during Iran’s most widespread protests in years. The date when the video was recorded could not be independently verified.

The prospect of U.S. retaliation for the deaths of protesters hung over the region, though President Trump signaled a possible de-escalation, saying the killing appeared to be ending.