DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Hackers disrupted Iran’s state television satellite broadcasts of aerial footage supporting the country’s exiled crown prince and calling on security forces to “not point guns at people,” online footage showed early Monday, the latest breach to follow. nationwide protests in the country.
The hacking came as the death toll from the authorities’ crackdown on the demonstrations reached at least 3,919, activists said. They fear that number will rise further as information leaks out of the country, which is still gripped by the government’s decision to shut down the internet.
Meanwhile, tensions remain high between the United States and Iran over intervention after President Donald Trump drew two red lines for the Islamic republic — the killing of peaceful protesters and mass executions in Tehran in the wake of demonstrations. The US aircraft carrier, which was in the South China Sea a few days ago, passed Singapore overnight to enter the Strait of Malacca, putting it on a course that could take it to the Middle East.
The footage was broadcast Sunday night on several satellite channels from the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, the country’s state broadcaster, which has a monopoly on television and radio broadcasting. The video aired two clips exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavithen included footage of security forces and others wearing what appeared to be Iranian police uniforms. It claimed, without providing evidence, that others had “laid down their arms and sworn an oath of allegiance to the people”.
“This is a message to the military and security forces,” one image read. “Don’t point your guns at the people. Join the nation for the freedom of Iran.”
The semi-official Fars news agency, believed to be close to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, quoted a statement from state radio acknowledging that the signal in “some areas of the country was temporarily interrupted by an unknown source”. There was no talk of what was broadcast.
A statement from Pahlavi’s office acknowledged the breach, which showed the crown prince. He did not respond to questions from The Associated Press about the hack.
“I have a special message for the army. You are the national army of Iran, not the army of the Islamic Republic,” Pahlavi said in the hacked broadcast. “You have a duty to protect your own lives. You don’t have much time left. Join the humans as soon as possible.”
Social media footage shared abroad, presumably by those with Starlink satellites to avoid internet shutdowns, showed the hack taking place across multiple channels. The footage was also shared by the Pahlavi campaign.
Sunday’s hack is not the first time Iranian broadcasts have been disrupted. In 1986, The Washington Post reported that the CIA supplied the prince’s allies with “a miniaturized television transmitter for an 11-minute covert broadcast” to Iran from Pahlavi, who pirated the signal of two stations in the Islamic Republic.
In 2022, several channels broadcast footage of leaders from the exiled opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and a graphic calling for the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Pahlavi’s father, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, fled Iran before the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Pahlavi’s son called protesters into the streets on January 8 as Iranian authorities shut down the Internet and drastically stepped up their repression.
How much support Pahlavi has inside Iran remains an open question, although pro-Shah chants were heard at the demonstrations.
As tensions between Tehran and Washington remain high, ship tracking data analyzed Monday by the AP showed the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, as well as other US military vessels, in the Strait of Malacca after passing Singapore on a route that could take them to the Middle East.
Lincoln was with her strike group in the South China Sea as a deterrent to China due to tensions with Taiwan. Tracking data showed that USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., USS Michael Murphy and USS Spruance, all Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, traveled with Lincoln through the Straits.
Several US media reports citing unnamed officials said the Lincoln, which is homeported in San Diego, was en route to the Middle East. He would probably need several more days of travel before his plane was within range of the region. The Middle East was without a carrier group or a ready amphibious group, likely complicating any discussion of a military operation targeting Iran given the broad opposition of the Arab Gulf states to such an attack.
The death toll exceeds any other round of protests or unrest in Iran in decades and is reminiscent of the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution. The US Human Rights Activists News Agency on Sunday put the death toll at at least 3,919 people dead, warning it was likely to be higher.
The agency has been accurate during years of demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country to confirm all reported casualties. AP was unable to independently confirm the tolls.
Iranian officials did not give a clear death toll, although Khamenei said so on Saturday the protests left “several thousand” dead and blamed the United States for the death. It was the first indication from Iran’s leader of the scale of casualties in the wave of protests that began on December 28 against Iran’s ailing economy.
Associated Press writer Elena Becatoros contributed to this report.
