TEHRAN – Even though life is rapidly returning to normal across Iran, people are still clinched by growing terror as reports continue to reveal the horrifying level of violence displayed by rioters and armed terrorists laying waste to Iranian cities on Thursday and Friday. 

Both the material and financial damage, as well as the casualties have been unprecedented in Iran since the 1980s, when the country was still grappling with multiple active terrorist groups operating on Iranian soil. One of these groups was the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), now headquartered in Europe, which killed at least 19,000 Iranians in the first decade after the Islamic Revolution.

Some of the armed terrorists arrested in recent days were revealed to have ties to the MEK, as well as notorious separatist outfits stationed near the country’s western and eastern borders. Multiple American and Israeli officials had admitted to having deployed agents “on the ground” in Iran before the initially peaceful economic protests were derailed into deadly riots. Police said they were not surprised to discover the terrorist and separatist affiliations of the detainees, as such factions are usually the ones employed by foreign spy agencies like Mossad and the CIA to operate inside Iran. 

While the expansive involvement of Washington and Israel had been clear to security forces and politicians since the beginning, reports emerging on the heart-wrenching brutality of the rioters seem to have now also convinced the Iranian people that the violence plaguing Iran last week could not have been perpetrated by ordinary citizens. 

In the city of Qazvin, rioters set fire to a chain supermarket while two cashiers were still inside. The two young women who were in their 20s burned to death after rioters prevented them from exiting. A lawmaker that revealed their harrowing fate on national TV said the two young women’s corpses took a while to identify.

A middle-aged man that worked at a bank was waiting on the sidewalk for the riots to subside so he could begin his journey back home on Thursday. Terrorists shot him dead and then proceeded to set fire to the bank. Furthermore, an Iranian reporter who visited a Tehran morgue on Monday said he saw many bodies that had been shot in the head by armed terrorists.

It was previously revealed that a 3-year-old girl, as well as a female nurse working a night shift were killed by terrorists during the weekend. The three-year-old was shot as she was walking the street with her father in the western Kermanshah Province, and the female nurse was burned alive in the northern city of Rasht after the medical facility she served at was set ablaze. 

A 22-year-old security officer was beheaded in the city of Hamedan. Rioters then put his severed head on the roof of a police car, disposed of his body, and ran away. In the western city of Illam, two security forces were beaten to death, and their bodies were dragged to the opening of a sewage. 

At least 8 police forces were killed by rioters and armed terrorists on Thursday and Friday. Several more fatalities belong to the Basij volunteer forces. Basij was the primary unit safeguarding Iranian streets during the 12-day U.S.-Israeli aggression back in June. The exact number of overall casualties, consisting of both security forces and civilians, has yet to be confirmed. 

Officials, critics say U.S. and Israel must pay

The Iranian government has declared three days of national mourning to honor the victims. “The Iranian nation has witnessed firsthand the barbaric violence committed by perpetrators, reminiscent of Daesh (ISIS), against its people, Basij volunteers, and police forces, resulting in the martyrdom of many,” read a statement published by the Presidential office Sunay evening. “The national mourning period is in remembrance of those killed during the Iranian resistance against the United State and the Zionist regime.” 

U.S. President Donald Trump has said multiple times since the protests were pushed awry that he would intervene and “strike” Iran if it cracks down on the armed terrorists. While he has not acted on the threat after strong warnings by Iranian officials, he may still have to face accountability for his illegal and interventionist comments, as well as his role in spurring the deadly unrest. 

During a meeting with foreign diplomats serving in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Trump’s remarks prompted the rioters to push for an increase in casualties. He also said Iran has obtained evidence showing that they had been ordered by their Western and Israeli handlers to hit both the police forces and ordinary citizens. His remarks came after Iran’s judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje’i, announced he has ordered legal action to be taken against Washington in international courts. 

Similarly, in a letter to the UN Security Council, Iranian Envoy Amir Saeed Iravani said the U.S., and its colonial project Israel, have created a “dangerous precedent that will rattle the international order on which the United Nations was founded.”

Iran’s security and military circles have also vowed to take pre-emptive action against the U.S. if they determine the Trump administration is serious about aiding the terrorists, many of whom are now believed to be in custody. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said American bases in the region will be levelled by missiles before Trump gets to act on his potential plans. Qalibaf was a senior member of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) during the Iraqi invasion of Iran, and has close ties to IRGC commanders and engineers overseeing the country’s robust missile program. 

Another warning came from Security Chief Ali Larijani, a seasoned Iranian stateman that appears to have become an even more influential figure in Iranian politics and decision-making after the 12-day war. He told the American people in a post on X to keep in mind that if U.S. soldiers end up getting killed by Iran, the responsibility falls upon their president because he started “first”. Iran refrained from the unnecessary killing of American soldiers in its two previous attacks on U.S. bases, which took place in 2020 and 2025. At least 40,000 American soldiers are stationed within the reach of Iranian missiles and drones in the West Asia region. 

Meanwhile, some critics argue Americans and Israelis must face consequences for the recent deaths even if they refrain from taking further action in this regard. A West Asia analyst appearing on a famous Persian podcast on foreign relations, said “patience and principle will only bring Iran more harm.” 

“We must make the tables turn and change the equations. Legal action against U.S.-Israeli crimes just won’t cut it anymore.” the expert stated.