Iran

Time -  Fears are growing that the number of protesters killed by Iranian security forces now reaches into the thousands. Despite an internet blackout, cell phone footage has emerged of truck-mounted machine guns strafing residential streets, hospitals swamped by shooting victims, and a morgue overwhelmed by hundreds of bodies after only the first night of assaults. 

To account for what it called a “significant” death toll, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Sunday raised the specter of ISIS, claiming in a statement that slain protesters were terrorists hired by Israel and the U.S. Two days earlier, a Guard official on state-controlled television had warned that anyone venturing into the street should be prepared to “take a bullet.”

NPR - President Trump says he is not ruling out strikes on Iran despite saying Tehran asked to negotiate with the U.S. Iran has seen significant protests for several weeks in the biggest challenge to the theocratic regime in years. In response, the Iranian government has cracked down hard. Around 500 protesters have been killed, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. 

The regime’s knowledge of the U.S.’ capability to damage missile facilities and hit political targets may have led to the Iranians' request for talks with the Trump administration, Nader Habibi, who focuses on Middle East economics, tells NPR’s Jackie Northam. Iran said it would consider U.S. military bases and ships as targets for preemptive strikes if the U.S. looked like it would strike. Currently, Iran’s regime is vulnerable because its 12-day war with Israel last summer resulted in the deaths of many of the government’s senior leadership and weakened its military capabilities.