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Sunday, January 25, 2026
From the Liveblog of
Sunday, January 25, 2026
NY Times: Khamenei instructed regime forces to ‘crush’ protests, ‘show no mercy’
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This handout photograph provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shows him speaking in Tehran on January 17, 2026. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
The New York Times reports that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei instructed security forces on January 9 to “crush” the mass demonstrations in the country “by any means necessary.”
Citing two unnamed Iranian officials with knowledge of the leader’s instructions, the paper says forces were told to “shoot to kill and to show no mercy.”
The report emerges as several new reports claim the death toll in the brutal crackdown of January 8-9 surpassed 30,000.
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