Iran

Iranian security forces shot dead a teenage motorcycle influencer who posted videos of herself online without a headscarf, human rights groups have reported.

Diana Bahador, a 19-year-old from northern Gonbad-e-Kavus known online as Baby Rider, was killed on Jan 8 in Gorgan during protests against the Islamic Republic.

She was reportedly shot twice with live ammunition around midnight, and her body was returned to her family two days later, the Hyrcani Human Rights group reported.

Diana Bahadour, AKA (baby rider) a 19-year-old motorcyclist in Iran was fatally shot by security forces of the Islamic regime while fighting in the streets for a free Iran.

RIP Diana. pic.twitter.com/aZ0TTwUEhm

— CALI🇺🇸 (@CALI4AZ) January 27, 2026

Farhad was blinded by the gas canister that struck his face when a bullet pierced his neck.

Iranian security forces had fired on him during clashes with anti-regime protesters on the streets of Tehran.

His friends screamed his name as he lay in a pool of blood. Meanwhile, his phone buzzed in his pocket with the unanswered calls from his parents.

Never in its forty-six-year history, thanks to the Trump administration and Israel, has the Iranian regime been weaker. Never, since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, has the clerical system faced such a convergence of internal rebellion, economic collapse, military vulnerability, and psychological defeat. Never have the mullahs appeared so exposed and so afraid of their own population. This historic weakening is the outcome of sustained pressure and — above all — the courage of the Iranian people, who have risen against a system that has ruled them for generations through prisons and executions.

Donald Trump is sending an “armada” to the Middle East. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group are due to arrive in the Arabian Sea in the coming days. American fighter jets usually based in Britain have landed in Jordan. And anti-missile defence systems are already in the Gulf.

None of this proves Donald Trump is preparing for war with the Islamic Republic, but it is exactly what he would do if he were. And while we are not privy to his specific battle plans, the similarities with last year’s build-up off Venezuela are impossible to ignore.

President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday that an “armada” of American warships is heading for Iran and implied that military force could be on the table if the regime in Tehran continues murdering its own people to stay in power.

Iran has been roiling with protest. Across cities and provinces, Iranians have been risking their lives to challenge a clerical regime that has ruled through religious coercion, surveillance and fear for nearly half a century. The merchant classes — once regime loyalists — sparked the uprising that rapidly drew young women, workers, students, professionals and grandmothers into its ranks.

Hundreds of photos revealing the faces of those killed during Iran’s violent crackdown on anti-government protests have been leaked to BBC Verify.

The pictures, which are too graphic to show without blurring, reveal the bloodied, swollen and bruised faces of at least 326 victims – including 18 women. The images, displayed in a south Tehran mortuary, are one of the only ways families have been able to identify their dead loved ones.