Rights activists reported on Saturday that over 3,000 people have died in Iran's nationwide protests, while a "very slight rise" in internet activity was noted following an eight-day blackout in the country.
The US-based HRANA group said it had verified 3,090 deaths, including 2,885 protesters, after residents said the crackdown appeared to have broadly quelled protests for now and state media reported more arrests, The Caspian Post reports, citing foreign media.
The Iranian government has blamed much of the violence on people it says are armed rioters posing as protesters, labelling them "terrorists" and claiming that Israel and the US were behind organising them and responsible for many of the deaths of demonstrators and security forces.
The capital Tehran has been comparatively quiet for four days, said several residents reached by Reuters. Drones were flying over the city, but there were no signs of major protests on Thursday or Friday, said the residents, who asked not to be identified for their safety.
The protests erupted on 28 December over economic hardship and swelled into widespread demonstrations calling for the end of clerical rule in the Islamic Republic, culminating in mass violence late last week. According to opposition groups and an Iranian official, more than 2,000 people were killed in the worst domestic unrest since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"Metrics show a very slight rise in internet connectivity in #Iran this morning" after 200 hours of shutdown, the internet monitoring group NetBlocks posted on X. Connectivity remained around 2 percent of ordinary levels, it said.
The semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that internet service had been restored for some users. The ISNA news website said SMS service had also been reactivated.
A resident of Karaj, west of Tehran, reached by phone via WhatsApp, said he noticed the internet was back at 4 am. (0000 GMT) on Saturday. Karaj experienced some of the most severe violence during the protests. The resident, who asked not to be identified, said Thursday was the peak of the unrest there.
A few Iranians overseas said on social media that they had also been able to message users in Iran early on Saturday.
US President Donald Trump, who had threatened "very strong action" if Iran executed protesters, said Tehran's leaders had called off mass hangings.
"I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!" he posted on social media.
Iran had not announced plans for such executions nor said it had cancelled them.
Iranian media affiliated with the government reported that several "ringleaders" of the unrest, including a woman named Nazanin Baradaran, had been taken into custody following what they described as “complex intelligence operations".
The reports claimed that Baradaran, operating under the pseudonym Raha Parham on behalf of Reza Pahlavi - the exiled son of Iran’s last shah - had played a leading role in organising the unrest. Reuters could not verify the report or her identity.
