Iran’s Khamenei Says US, Israel Linked To Deadly Protest Violence: ‘Thousands Killed’

Iran’s streets have at this point been relatively calm for the last several days, after two weeks of large-scale protests rocked the country amid an ongoing economic crisis and Washington threatened to intervene by hitting government sites.

When protests and unrest turned to riots and clashes with police, which in some locations resulted in deaths on both sides, Tehran authorities moved to impose a complete internet and messaging blackout – believing this would thwart or slow any foreign plotting seeking to exploit the protests.

After eight days of no internet access, Iran has begun easing these restrictions Saturday, restoring short messaging service (SMS) nationwide. State media describes there will be a phased plan for bringing back internet and messaging services.

Al Jazeera cites state authorities who say terror cells and a foreign conspiracy had been disrupted, but now the situation is stable:

Quoting officials, the agency reported that the decision followed what it described as the stabilisation of the security situation and the detention of key figures linked to “terror organizations” behind the violence during protests over rising prices and economic hardship that erupted on December 28 in several Iranian cities.

Authorities said the internet blackout had “significantly weakened the internal connections of opposition networks abroad” and disrupted the activities of the “terror cells”.

On this, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also weighed in, claiming that actors linked to the United States and Israel were responsible for killing “several thousands” during the anti-government protests.

“Those linked to Israel and US caused massive damages and killed several thousands” he said Saturday. The US and Western allies have repeatedly rejected these Iranian claims of ‘foreign plotting’. And more via Bloomberg:

Some of those were killed “brutally and inhumanely,” Khamenei said without offering detail in a public meeting broadcast on state TV.

This marks the first time any top Iranian authority described the casualties as being in the “thousands”. Some US-based ‘monitor’ groups as well as American media earlier in the week raised eyebrows and skepticism in claiming 12,000 were killed – a huge figure.

As for the possibility of foreign plotting, the Financial Times appears to be the first mainstream outlet to describe black-clad and well-organized groups who unleashed chaos and anti-police violence amid the protests…

“There were groups of men in black clothes, agile and quick. They would set one dustbin on fire and then quickly move to the next target” They “look[ed] like commandos” …“They were definitely organized, but I don’t know who was behind them”

FT offers one of the first acknowledgments by Western media of well organized cells wreaking havoc on Iranian cities

“There were groups of men in black clothes, agile and quick. They would set one dustbin on fire and then quickly move to the next target”

They “look[ed] like… pic.twitter.com/Fwq2ab8ZHI

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) January 17, 2026

Iran has said that hundreds of police and security personnel were killed or wounded, and has cited videos showing armed supposed ‘protesters’ seeking to wage an insurgency against government positions. It should come as no surprise that Israeli or Western intelligence should seek to hijack and steer the protests toward some kind of regime destabilization goal. But this scenario is always hard to prove amid the fog of war and thick propaganda coming from all sides.