Iran cuts off mobile phone network amid calls for protests over killed demonstrators

Internet outage last month shut nation off from world as security forces killed protesters

Iranian authorities cut off internet services to several politically sensitive parts of the country ahead of calls for renewed protests against the regime on Thursday.

An unnamed source cited by the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency said mobile internet service had been shutdown on Wednesday in Alborz province adjacent to the capital Tehran, the central province of Fars which includes the city of Shiraz, as well as the ethnically volatile provinces of Kordestan to the west and Zanjan to the east.

The shutdown was confirmed on social media by Iranians who raised fears the move was intended to shut the country off from the world ahead of a violent crackdown like those last month that left hundreds dead.

NetBlocks, an internet mapping organisation, described “disruptions to mobile networks” in multiple Iranian cities, “although the extent of the disruptions has not yet been corroborated.”

The unnamed source cited by ILNA said the shutdown was “based on an order by security bodies,” a likely reference to the Supreme National Security Council, which includes Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani, the head of the Revolutionary Guards and other key security and political figures.

It suggests the authorities remained fearful of the possibility of more popular rebellion as the country fends off a United States campaign of sanctions meant to destabilise the country over its pursuit of nuclear technology, refinement of missiles and its support for armed groups throughout the Middle East.

Video posted on social media suggested bolstered deployments of police and extremist Basiji militiamen throughout parts of the capital.

The hardline Fars news agency has published videos showing prisoners in striped uniforms "confessing" to killing security forces while they were peacefully at prayer in the southwestern city of Mahshahr last month, a tactic meant to intimidate potential opponents by showing the extent of the regime's coercive power.

Iran was roiled by days of protests last month sparked by a sudden spike in fuel prices that exacerbated public anger over economic troubles and political repression.

Unnamed sources cited by Reuters claimed 1,500 people were killed in the November protests and the State Department has claimed up to 1,000 dead in the unrest. Iran has dismissed the figures as exaggerated but has yet to cite an official death toll.

Regime officials shut down the internet for six days after the protests, badly damaging the country’s nascent tech sector while cutting the country off from the world.

Three out of four Iranians use mobile internet.

The demonstrations called for Thursday are meant to commemorate those killed last month. They were first called by the father of Pooya Bakhtiari, a 27-year-old protester shot dead by regime agents on 16 November. Thursday marks the 40th day since his death, a religiously significant mourning milestone in the Islamic faith.

Regime forces arrested Bakhtiari’s outspoken father and other relatives on 23 December.