Iran protests: 646 killed, activists say, as Trump weighs military action

LONDON — The death toll from major anti-government protests in Iran reached 646 as of Monday, according to data published by the the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), over 16 days of unrest.

At least 10,721 people have been arrested, HRANA said, in protests that have been recorded in 606 locations in 187 cities across all 31 Iranian provinces. Among the dead are 505 protesters and nine children, the group reported.

The HRANA data relies on the work of activists inside and outside the country. ABC News cannot independently verify these numbers. The Iranian government has not provided any death tolls during the ongoing protests.

Iranian state-aligned media, meanwhile, has reported that more than 100 members of the security forces have been killed in the unrest. HRANA said that 133 military and security personnel were among those killed in the protest wave to date, along with one prosecutor.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday announced a 25% tariff on any country doing business with Iran, after repeatedly warning Tehran against the use of force to suppress the ongoing protests.

“Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America,” Trump said in a social media post on Monday. “This Order is final and conclusive.”

Trump’s national security team are expected to meet at the White House on Tuesday to discuss his options for intervention in the Islamic Republic.

One U.S. official told ABC News that among the options under consideration are new sanctions against key regime figures or against Iran’s energy or banking sectors.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested reporters on Monday that military options remain open to Trump.

The president, she said, “is always keeping all of his options on the table and air strikes would be one of the many, many options on the table for the commander in chief. Diplomacy is always the first option for the president.”

Citing “escalating” protests and increased security measures, the State Department also urged Americans to leave Iran.

“U.S. citizens should expect continued internet outages, plan alternative means of communication, and, if safe to do so, consider departing Iran by land to Armenia or Türkiye,” a new security alert posted on the U.S. “virtual” Embassy Tehran website on Monday stated.

Protests have been spreading across the country since late December. The first marches took place in downtown Tehran, with participants demonstrating against rising inflation and the falling value of the national currency, the rial. 

As the protests spread, some have taken on a more explicitly anti-government tone.

The theocratic government in Tehran — headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — moved to tame the protests, with security forces reportedly using tear gas and live ammunition to disperse gatherings.

A sustained national internet outage has been in place across the country for several days. Online monitoring group NetBlocks said on Tuesday that the “nationwide internet shutdown” had been ongoing for 108 hours.

Khamenei and top Iranian officials have said they are willing to engage with the economic grievances of protesters, though have framed the unrest as driven by “rioters” and “terrorists” sponsored by foreign nations — prime among them the U.S. and Israel — and supported by foreign infiltrators.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described the wave of protests as a “terrorist war” while speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran.

Also on Monday, state television broadcast footage of pro-government rallies organized in other major cities.

The footage showed crowds waving Iranian flags in Tehran’s Revolution Square. State television described the Tehran demonstration as an “Iranian uprising against American-Zionist terrorism.”

Dissident figures abroad, meanwhile, have urged Iranians to take to the street and overthrow the government. 

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi — who from his base in the U.S. has become a prominent critic of the Iranian government — on Monday appealed to Trump to act in support of the protesters.

“I have called the people to the streets to fight for their freedom and to overwhelm the security forces with sheer numbers,” Pahlavi wrote on X. “Last night they did that. Your threat to this criminal regime has also kept the regime’s thugs at bay. But time is of the essence.”

“Please be prepared to intervene to help the people of Iran,” Pahlavi added.

ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian, Morgan Winsor, Meredith Deliso, Anne Flaherty and Mariam Khan contributed to this report.