Footage circulating on social media suggests that protests following #Mahsah_Amini's death have occurred in 19 of #Iran's 31 provinces within the past three days. A thread: 1/5
Protests that were initially concentrated in #Tehran City and throughout #Kurdistan Province – where Amini was from – have since spread nationwide within the past day, reaching historically conservative cities like #Qom. 2/5
Protestors have chanted anti-regime slogans against mandatory veiling and against Supreme Leader #Khamenei's son, #Mojtaba, who some have speculated will succeed his father as Supreme Leader. CTP discusses Mojtaba and succession in a recent update: criticalthreats.org/analysis/iran-… 3/5
Iranian social media users reported arrests, violence, and severe internet outages and disruptions in cities like #Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province and #Tehran City in response to recent unrest. 4/5
The regime has deployed its anti-riot units to crack down on unrest, but has not yet mobilized the #IRGC Ground Forces as it did in 2019. 5/5
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#Iran has expanded internet censorship in recent days, indicating that regime leaders view ongoing protests following #MahsaAmini's death as a serious threat. Here's what we know so far: 1/6
#IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency today confirmed that #Iranian authorities blocked domestic access to #Whatsapp and #Instagram in an attempt to suppress nation-wide unrest. 2/6
#Russian forces continued ground attacks on the eastern outskirts of #Bakhmut and against #Avdiivka and continued routine fire along the frontline in #Donetsk Oblast on September 21.
Moscow faces severe manpower shortages in #Ukraine and is pulling some units from #Syria to inject into the fight. This continuing drawdown is facilitating the expansion of the #Iranian presence in Syria and exacerbating the Iran-Israel escalation cycle. 2/7
#Iran likely seeks to fill the security gap caused by this #Russian drawdown to expand Iranian military influence and maintain stability. 3/7
Russian-appointed occupation officials in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia oblasts announced on 9/20 that they will hold a “referendum” on acceding to Russia, with a vote taking place from 9/23-27. Read today’s update from CTP and @TheStudyofWar. criticalthreats.org/analysis/russi…
#Ukrainian forces continued disrupting ongoing #Russian efforts to reestablish ground lines of communications (GLOCs) across the Dnipro River in #Kherson Oblast.
#Russian forces are likely targeting #Ukrainian hydrotechnical infrastructure in #Kharkiv and #Luhansk oblasts to threaten Ukrainian positions along the Siverskyi Donets River.