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Iranian Protester Tells of an Uprising Violently Suppressed
(Wall Street Journal) David S. Cloud - The Iranian businessman was chanting antigovernment slogans along with hundreds of other protesters on the streets of northern Tehran on Jan. 8 when police opened fire. A man a few feet away crumpled to the ground, bleeding profusely. He bent to help the wounded man, but fled as more bullets slammed into the retreating crowd at a packed intersection. It was the start of a multiday crackdown that human-rights activists say killed at least 3,000 people. The next day he took to the streets again. "The sound of gunfire came from everywhere," he said. "It was like a battlefield." On Jan. 10, fewer people ventured out that evening and he stayed home as well. "It was quiet. It was as if we had just realized what had happened to us and how many people had been killed." Then, on Jan. 14, Trump stood down after coming to the brink of ordering strikes, when his advisers told him the U.S. didn't have the forces in the region to significantly damage the regime. Analysts, say the current round of protests is all but over after the violence. Iranian judicial officials said they would deal firmly with those they said were behind the unrest.