Protests erupted across Iran on Friday night despite the government’s efforts to stifle demonstrations through an internet shutdown and the severing of telephone lines to the outside world, according to online videos circulating on social media.

At least 65 people have died since the unrest began in late December. The protests, initially driven by economic hardship, have grown into the most significant challenge to the Iranian government in years.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned U.S. President Donald Trump, accusing him of having hands “stained with the blood of Iranians,” while supporters chanted “Death to America!” in footage broadcast by Iranian state television.

State media subsequently described the demonstrators as “terrorists,” signalling the possibility of a violent crackdown reminiscent of previous protests, despite Trump’s repeated pledges to support peaceful demonstrators.

Addressing the unrest from his residence in Tehran, the 86-year-old Khamenei criticised protesters, saying they were “damaging their own streets to satisfy the president of the United States” and added that Trump “ought to focus on the condition of his own nation instead.”