Latest update – 12:30 pm CET
January 3 marks the third anniversary of the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the former head of the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, in a U.S. drone attack just outside of Baghdad International Airport. Protesters and courageous locals across Iran are expressing their hatred of Soleimani, and the regime in its entirety, by using Molotov cocktails and homemade explosives to target Soleimani’s posters, banners, placards, and billboards. The regime’s sites, along with statues and billboards symbolizing the mullahs’ authoritarian dictatorship, are among other frequent targets. And people are specifically focusing on images and anything symbolizing regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his entire apparatus of oppressive forces.
January 2 – Tehran, #Iran
A large billboard of former IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani was burned at 6:30 am this morning.#IranRevolution2023#مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبر pic.twitter.com/xy1mkPJ53W— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 2, 2023
Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 282 cities. Over 750 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 614 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.
January 1 – Qom, central #Iran
Locals torched a poster of former IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani.#IranRevolution2023#مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبر pic.twitter.com/r3F4Cu5FTd— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 2, 2023
In other news, two inmates by the names of Ahmad Bochaghchi and Aziz Beg-Hosseini were executed early Monday morning local time in Karaj Central Prison, local just west of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Furthermore, contract workers of the state communications company in Gilan Province, located in northern Iran, are on strike demanding answers to their long-raised dilemmas.
January 3 – Gilan Province, northern #Iran
Contract workers of the state communications company are on strike demanding answers to their long-raised dilemmas.#IranRevolution2023#اعتصابات_سراسری pic.twitter.com/1p5CUZzRCb— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 3, 2023
On Monday, in the restive city of Javanrud in Kermanshah Province, western Iran, locals are reporting that regime authorities have dispatched many security units to their streets following the recent unrest. Internet connection is heavily disrupted, local activists add.
January 2 – Javanrud, western #Iran
Locals are reporting that regime authorities have dispatched many security units to the city following the recent unrests. Internet connection is heavily disrupted.#IranRevolution2023#مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبر pic.twitter.com/1cHX0TulEI— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 2, 2023
In the city of Mahabad, northwest Iran, locals gathered to mark the 40th day of Shomal Khadiripour’s murder by the regime’s security forces and began chanting:
“Death to Khamenei!”
“So many years of crimes! Death to the mullahs’ regime!”
“Kurds and Baluchis are brothers!” in solidarity with the Baluch of Sistan & Baluchestan Province.
“Death to the mullahs’ regime principle!”
The crowd continued their ceremony by heading into the town from the cemetery and launching a protest march against the mullahs’ dictatorship. Regime authorities have dispatched a large number of security forces to the city to prevent further anti-regime protests.
January 2 – Mahabad, northwest #Iran
Locals gathered to mark the 40th day of Shomal Khadiripour's murder by the regime's security forces began chanting: "Death to Khamenei!" #IranRevolution2023#شمال_خدیری_پورpic.twitter.com/4AKTGujI57— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 2, 2023
Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi once again emphasized the inevitable outcome of the Iranian people’s relentless protests against the mullahs’ regime.
“The current conditions move in only one direction and towards one destination, which is the unceasing progress of the Iranian people’s uprising toward the regime’s overthrow,” the NCRI President-elect explained.
The current conditions move in only one direction and towards one destination, which is the unceasing progress of the Iranian people’s uprising toward the regime’s overthrow.#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/HhCudvEeEv
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) January 2, 2023
The protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, who traveled to Tehran with her family, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13, at the entry of Haqqani Highway by the regime’s so-called “Guidance Patrol” and transferred to the “Moral Security” agency.
She was brutally beaten by the morality police and died of her wounds in a Tehran hospital on September 16. The event triggered protests that quickly spread across Iran and rekindled the people’s desire to overthrow the regime.
