Starlink Opens Free Access in Iran Amid Internet Blackout

Elon Musk’s internet satellite provider Starlink is now available for free in Iran after the regime cut off online access six days ago.Both Bloomberg and AP reported that activists in Iran can now use Starlink for free, providing them a crucial tool to document the mass killing against protestors and communicate with the outside world. Aso Amadeh, an Iranian-Kurd living in exile in Denmark, told The New York Sun that regime forces are going door to door in the Kurdish region in Iran to take down satellite dishes on houses to prevent them from watching western cable TV. “In many cases, homes are entered by force and doors are broken. The main objective is to block access to free information and prevent Starlink internet connections,” Mr. Amadeh said. Mr. Amadeh added that the regime fears that Kurdish Iranians are smuggling weapons across the border with Iraq, which has led to dozens of arrests in and set up of military checkpoints at city entrances. “All vehicles are stopped, searched, and inspected. Citizens’ mobile phones are confiscated and checked without consent. In the city of Baneh at least 50 people have been arrested on charges of ‘cooperation with the enemy.’ Arrests are reportedly linked to accessing the internet near border areas or using Iraqi SIM cards,” he added. As Iranians await a decision by Mr. Trump to possibly attack the regime, exiled Iranian Crown Prince, Reza Pahlavi, told Fox News: “When civilians are being murdered and massacred in a war waged against them by their own government, some additional help is needed. I’m not talking about aggression — I’m talking about helping a nation liberate itself.”Mr. Pahlavi added that the regime is using “military weapons, AK-47s, armored trucks, to shoot to kill unarmed protesters. Their bodies are being picked up by bulldozers.”Reports of Iran preparing to hang demonstrators this week, Mr. Trump told CBS News: “We will take very strong action. If they do such a thing, we will take very strong action.”The president reiterated that “there’s a lot of help on the way” for Iranian citizens, including economic assistance. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meanwhile announced that “further sanctions on those responsible for the repression will be swiftly proposed.”“The rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying. I unequivocally condemn the excessive use of force and continued restriction of freedom,” she said. Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also weighed in, saying: “A regime that has lasted so many years and killed so many people does not deserve to exist. Changes are needed.”The regime crackdown, which reportedly left some 12.000 people killed so far, has also been criticised by a senior Iranian Sunni cleric, Molavi Abdolhamid, who said that the “massacre of thousands of protesters in Tehran and other cities of our country over a few days was a horrific and unprecedented catastrophe. This bitter event has plunged the Iranian nation into grief and rage, and has deeply wounded the conscience of free people around the world.”“Undoubtedly, those who ordered and carried out this crime will be held accountable in this world, and in the hereafter they will also deserve divine punishment,” Mr. Abdolhamid added.

Starlink Opens Free Access in Iran Amid Internet Blackout

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