Iran’s deadly crackdown appears to have broadly quelled protests for now, residents said on Friday, as state media reported more arrests in the shadow of repeated US threats to intervene if the killing continues.

Meanwhile, a senior hard-line cleric called for the death penalty for detained demonstrators and directly threatened US President Donald Trump — evidence of the rage gripping authorities in the Islamic Republic. And more US military assets were expected to arrive in the region, reflecting the continued tensions.

Several residents of Tehran reached by Reuters said the capital had now been comparatively quiet for four days. Drones were flying over the city, but there had been no sign of major protests on Thursday or Friday. Another resident in a northern city on the Caspian Sea said the streets there also appeared calm. The residents declined to be identified for their safety.

The New York Times cited four residents from different parts of Tehran as saying the capital had assumed an air of martial law, with regime officers deployed in large numbers in different parts of the capital and usually busy streets now empty.

“There is massive disappointment and disillusionment,” a resident who worked in central Tehran told the Times, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Iran’s state-owned Press TV also cited Iran’s police chief as saying calm had been restored across the country.

Harsh repression has left several thousand dead in the demonstrations that began on December 28 over Iran’s ailing economy and morphed into a mass movement demanding the removal of the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution.

Iranian authorities imposed an internet shutdown last week that activists fear is aimed at masking the true scale of the deadly crackdown.

On Saturday, more than 200 hours into the shutdown, monitoring group NetBlocks said internet connectivity in Iran rose “very” slightly.

“Metrics show a very slight rise in internet connectivity in Iran this morning after the 200 hour mark,” NetBlocks said on X, but added that connection was only around 2 percent of ordinary levels and there was no sign of “a significant return.”

Accounts of the violent repression have trickled out despite the shutdown.

One woman in Tehran told Reuters by phone that her daughter was killed a week ago after joining a demonstration near their home.

“She was 15 years old. She was not a terrorist, not a rioter. Basij forces followed her as she was trying to return home,” she said, referring to a branch of the security forces often used to quell unrest.

Iranian-Kurdish rights group Hengaw said there had been no protest gatherings since Sunday, but “the security environment remains highly restrictive.”

“Our independent sources confirm a heavy military and........

© The Times of Israel