Major Iranian cities were gripped overnight Friday by new mass rallies denouncing the Islamic Republic, as activists on Saturday expressed fear that authorities were intensifying their suppression of the demonstrations under cover of an internet blackout.

The two weeks of protests have posed one of the biggest challenges to the theocratic authorities who have ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, although Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has expressed defiance and blamed the United States.

Following the movement’s largest protests yet on Thursday, new demonstrations took place late Friday, according to images verified by AFP and other videos published on social media.

This was despite an internet shutdown imposed by the authorities, with monitor Netblocks saying Saturday that “Iran has now been offline for 48 hours, as telemetry shows the nationwide internet blackout remains firmly in place.”

The blackout has sparked fears among activists that authorities are now violently cracking down on the protests, with less chance that the proof will reach the outside world. Amnesty International said it was analyzing “distressing reports that security forces have intensified their unlawful use of lethal force against protesters” since Thursday in an escalation “that has led to further deaths and injuries.”

The Telegraph reported that Khamenei had put Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the highest state of alert.

“The leader has ordered the Sepah [IRGC] to remain on the highest level of readiness — even higher than during the June war,” a senior Iranian official told the paper, referring to the 2025 war with Israel.

“He is in closer contact with the IRGC than with the army or the police, because he believes the risk of IRGC defections is almost non-existent, whereas others have defected before. He has placed his fate in the hands of the IRGC,” the source said.

Iranian officials say underground “missile cities,” or large ballistic missile sites, have also been activated to deal with foreign threats, according to the outlet.

One official dismissed a report earlier in the week that Khamenei has plans to flee to Moscow if an uprising threatens the regime. “He will not leave Tehran even if B-52s are flying overhead.”

An anonymous Tehran doctor cited by

© The Times of Israel