Over 200 protestors are reported dead in Iran, but the people in the streets don't seem to be showing much inclination to stand down and leave the mullahs in place. The United States has warned Iran not to get too carried away, although as of this writing, American forces haven't hit anything in Iran. And the Iranian protestors are showing they have some staying power.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio backed the “brave people of Iran” Saturday, while protesters calling for regime change continue to burn Tehran — as fear grows that the death toll has climbed to more than 200.
At least 65 people, including 50 protesters and 15 security personnel, have been killed as of Jan. 9, according to the Iranian rights group HRANA, although the true toll could be much higher.
A doctor told TIME that at least 217 protester deaths have been recorded across just six hospitals in Tehran — “most by live ammunition.”
Now, in a move that's a bit puzzling, we've learned that Iran's nearly fossilized Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered Iran's "missile cities" to be activated.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader placed the country’s security services on its highest alert Saturday.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to activate “missile cities,” or giant underground caches of ballistic weapons, sources told The Telegraph.
“The IRGC’s underground missile cities – which were deliberately kept intact during the 12-day war – are all on high alert,” the insider said, adding that any intervention by the US could trigger an “apocalyptic” war.
The IRGC warned the public Saturday that safeguarding security was a “red line,” and the military vowed to protect public property.
How, exactly, does one protect public property with missiles? Those are designed to destroy property, public and private. Missiles don't arrest people. They blow things up.
Read More: Israeli Intel's Reported Big Update on Iran, As Protests Intensify and Trump Talks More About Action
Internet Down in Iran As Protests Rage, Trump Vows Harsh Consequences If Mullahs Shoot Demonstrators
The regime may well be laying some groundwork for a more robust military response with statements like this:
Iranian officials described the rioters as “terrorists” who were targeting military and law enforcement bases over the past two nights, killing several citizens and security personnel and igniting personal property.
Overnight Friday, a municipal building in Karaj, west of Tehran, was torched.
Protests also continued in the cities of Shiraz, Qom and Hamedan.
There are two things that the Iranian theocracy may be thinking of doing, here:
First, the regime may be approaching the desperate point where they may well just start raining down high explosives on the Iranian people, who have, after all, just had enough of the regime's bull-feathers. That would be an extreme move and would draw the near-universal opprobrium of the rest of the world, but then, Iran is pretty used to that by now.
Second, the regime may see that the writing is not only on the wall, but that it's on every wall, and determine to go down swinging, by launching everything they have at everyone they can reach, most especially Israel.
More and more, it looks like the mullahs and the theocratic regime in Iran are holding on by their fingernails - and even that grip may be slipping away. Desperate men aren't known for making rational decisions. At this point, we shouldn't be surprised by anything they try.
Watch Iran. I'm guessing that in the next week to three weeks, we'll see this thing resolved one way or another.
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