🧵 A report about Iran’s riots: 1- The entire plan FAILED, bcz protesters didn’t receive nationwide support. Hardly 500,000 out of 86.6 million attended the demos in Tehran, elsewhere. That made the protest organizers to restore to the usual method: ferocious violence.
2- Watching the @BBC on Jan 9, @AFathollahNejad called the protests “the most existential threat” to the Islamic Republic in its history. He was wrong in his assessment: it was the “most aggressive violence” in 47 years, except early 1980 and atrocities committed by MKO cult.
3- violence in Rasht, Mashhad, Tehran, Ilam, Lorestan & Kish island was unbelievable: Banks, police stations, metro stations, fire engines, traffic signs, clinics, judicial offices, govt buildings, chain stores, schools (250), mosques (350) were attacked, ransacked or torched.
4- Tehran Mayor @arzakani4 estimates rioters inflicted a $20-million loss on city’s infrastructures. It is $13.5 million in Mashahad. 53 electric buses & 150 ambulances each worth $150,000 set on fire in Tehran. In Izeh, emergency stockpiles at the Red Crescent depots set ablaze.
5- GRAPGIC IMAGE At least 3,700 citizens and 3,700+ police injured, 100s arrested. High casualties among security, police forces, Basij volunteers shows the extent of brutality against police was unseen. They were lynched, BEHEADED, set on fire alive, stabbed or shot to death.
6- Police reportedly were not allowed to use live rounds until 11pm Thursday January 7, when rioters had started a killing spree. Until then, they mostly fired tear gas, plastic rounds and shotguns to disperse crowds. The police being disarmed led to high casualties among them.
7- Apart from 700 rioters, 2,400 bystanders, ordinary people (3 kids), and police forces were killed. Citizens were killed by stones fell on their head or bricks beaten to their faces, stabbed in the back, neck, chest or shot from close range from back by armed assailants.
8- The height of the violence was Thursday-Friday evenings, Jan 7-8. With Khamenei stating, “the Nizam will not make concession to the rioters”, and the police sending SMS asking families to keep their children at home, violence and gatherings dropped dramatically as of Jan 10.
9- Iranian people stepped out of protests when terrorists stepped in. Watching homes, shops, bazaars, mosques and the Holy Quran on fire in Rasht and other cities AND suspicious killings, made people to express dissatisfaction with the havoc the rioters were wreaking.
10- Iranian authorities say they won’t be leniency this time and anyone involved in attacks on people, police, public & private properties will be dealt with seriously. Properties of attackers, instigators, celebrities who encouraged people to go on streets will be confiscated.