Report: Iran Deploys Hezbollah, Other Foreign Terrorist Fighters to Crack Down on Protesters
President Trump warns Khamenei regime: “You better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.”
With protests surging across cities and towns across Iran, the regime has reportedly unleashed foreign fighters to crack down on protesters. The U.S. State Department raised the alarm about Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi terror militia set loose on Iranians.
“The United States is concerned by reports that the Islamic Republic has employed Hezbollah terrorists and Iraqi militias to crack down on peaceful protests,” State Department’s Persian-language account on X said on Saturday.
"The United States is alarmed by reports that the Islamic Republic regime has deployed Hezbollah terrorists and Iraqi militants to suppress peaceful protests. This regime has spent billions of dollars belonging to the Iranian people on terrorist proxy forces. Deploying those… https://t.co/q1Bt5XRgCW
— John Frank (@John_Frank1954) January 10, 2026
President Trump warns Khamenei: “You better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too”
The State Department’s statement comes as Secretary Marco Rubio threw his weight behind the freedom-loving people of Iran. “The United States supports the brave people of Iran,” Rubio wrote on X.
On Friday, President Donald Trump repeated his warning to the Mullah regime that the U.S. will respond if the regime keeps killing peaceful demonstrators.
Reuters reported:
Trump, who bombed Iran last summer and warned Tehran last week the U.S. could come to the protesters’ aid issued another warning on Friday, saying: “You better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.”
“I just hope the protesters in Iran are going to be safe, because that’s a very dangerous place right now,” he added.
President Donald J. Trump states that the United States stands ready to “help” those looking for freedom in Iran. pic.twitter.com/TtlAvc52Rb
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) January 10, 2026
The regime has so far decided to ignore these warnings, with Khamenei himself mocking the president during the Friday prayer, claiming he would be “overthrown” like “arrogant” rulers before him amid customary chants of “Death to America.”
The United States supports the brave people of Iran
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 10, 2026
Hundreds feared dead, as the regime toughens crackdown; top prosecutor threatens protesters with death penalty
After Ayatollah Khamenei, on Friday, accused the protesters of being U.S. and Israel “agents,” and vowed to crush the uprising, the regime forces were cracking down on protests with even deadlier force, raising the estimated death toll to hundreds.
The New York Post on Saturday reported that “fears grow that the death toll has climbed to more than 200.” According to Time magazine, “A Tehran doctor [revealed] on condition of anonymity that just six hospitals in the capital had recorded at least 217 protester deaths, ‘most by live ammunition.'”
The British daily Independent reported drastic scenes at hospitals as the regime tried to cover up the brutality of its crackdown:
A doctor and a medic in Iran said that their hospitals have been inundated with patients as the protests continue to swell.
One doctor told the BBC that an eye hospital in Tehran was in ‘crisis mode’ due to the number of injuries they were treating.
A health worker at another hospital in the capital said patients were arriving with gunshot wounds.
A medic at another hospital, in Shiraz, said there were not enough surgeons to treat the number of patients coming in.
The United States supports the brave people of Iran
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 10, 2026
With the regime imposing a complete internet and telecommunication blackout, the Iranians have been cut off from the outer world and from each other for the third day in a row. “As the blackout kicked in, 90% of internet traffic to Iran evaporated,” The Guardian (UK) reported Saturday. “International calls to the country appeared blocked and domestic mobile phones had no service (…).”
The regime blocked the internet and phones after mass demonstrations erupted in Tehran and other cities, heeding a call to action by Iran’s exiled Crown Prince, Reza Pahlavi.
Rattled by the ferocity of the unrest, the regime is resorting to extreme measures. Iran’s prosecutor general threatened “all protesters” with the death penalty. They were guilty of ‘mohareb,’ Persian for ‘waging war against Allah,’ he explained.
The Sky News (UK) reports on Saturday:
All protesters will be charged as “enemies of god” (or “mohareb”), Mohammad Movahedi Azad, the country’s prosecutor-general, has said in a statement, as Iranian state media reported.
The offence is punishable by death penalty.
This would apply to “rioters and terrorists” who damaged property and undermined security and those who helped them alike, Movahedi Azad said.
Prosecutors should swiftly prepare trials and not show any “leniency, compassion, or indulgence”, he added.
Despite a brutal and deadly crackdown, the protesters remain undeterred as the unrest enters its third week.
“Iran was on edge Saturday after another night of protest in major cities and escalating threats from the government,” The Washington Post reported.
“[V]ideos shared by Persian-language news outlets based abroad (…) showed huge crowds in three cities including Tehran, Mashhad and Yazd, chanting for an end to the Islamic Republic and praising Iran’s deposed monarchy,” the daily added.
One of Iran’s biggest mosques burned during uprising.
Don’t panic. This isn’t chaos.
It’s 47 years of rage.
For 47 years, after every Allahu Akbar from these minarets, innocent Iranians were executed by an Islamist regime. pic.twitter.com/oHtMpPjHQA— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) January 10, 2026
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Comments
Now when I criticize Islam for being the demonic belief system that it is and I’m accused of being Islamophobic I can respond “Nay, nay! I’m just mohareb!”
Kidding aside, you have to respect those who have to live with the jackboot of Islam stomping on their necks. It’s incredibly brave what they’re doing and I support any kinetic intervention Mr. Trump offers in support.
Assuming “locked and loaded” means targets have already been chosen, we might find out where those targets are located in the next week or two.
Agreed, but it is more of a head separating scimitar than jackboot…
Stop warning the moooolahs and start the shooting! Let the Jews go and finish the moolahs off! 🤟
If the government is calling in the Hezbos, the IDF is bound to have good intelligence on how many and where and from which direction. Might be a target rich environment for any air force that wants to help out. Same with the Iraqi Shia militia.
This is Trump’s second warning in three days with mass shootings taking place in Iran. Planes and missiles are not much good against urban killers. We, the free world must step up and help the Persians overthrow this cancer of death. We cannot allow Islam to win here and as horrible as Ukraine is, Islam is a much bigger threat to the world than Putin is.
Taking out major arms depots and Rev Guard facilities. As with the mausoleum for Chavez, toast the one for Khomeini. Key is the cripple. These are religious zelots… give them what they want … send the mullahs to their virgin goats.
Exactly. Islam is half of today’s red/green axis.
Send in Israel
They know the land, where all the bodies are hiden
Where is the U.S.? We have told the people to take to the streets and they have done so. It has been two weeks now and all we are statements. I have mentioned Hungary in 1956 where we made promises to the people who then died in the streets.
A low-level flyover of Tehran by a flight of B-52s would go a long way. Russia would complain, but they have other problems to deal with right now. The Chinese? They do have a substantial interest in Iran because they have just lost Venezuelan oil. However, they have any significant presence in the region that I am not aware of? What economic sanctions could they place on the U.S. as retaliation?
Sigh – editor, please?
Whatever you do, NEVER say what you cannot or will not deliver in reality. Especially when unarmed people are putting their lives on the line – especially for freedom.
I have strong thoughts that this isn’t the first time Islam has done something horrible. Why is there desert below the fertile crescent?
Didn’t they do this before? Pull in their extraterritorial auxiliaries? I would think this would be a good time for Israel to hit Hezbollah hard. Have them dealing with multiple directions.
As to US help? I don’t think we should attack the regime. Airdropping a bunch of weapons and ammo? Sure. Pushing intelligence over those Starlink connections? Absolutely. (Maybe throw in some hardened comms, too.) But make sure this whole thing is the Iranian people’s doing.
(Oh, also be prepared to send in the Army Corps of Engineers to get water systems running and shore up Tehran. The people would see that as helpful and not controlling, I think.)