What: Iranian authorities have launched an internal security crackdown, involving mass arrests, executions, and military deployments, particularly in the Kurdish region, following a ceasefire with Israel.

When: Within days of Israel’s airstrikes beginning on June 13 (crackdown started), Wednesday (man in Tehran spoke), 1980s (historical comparison), 2022 (mass protests mentioned).

Where: Iran, Tehran, Kurdish region (Iran’s Kurdish provinces), Urmia (near Turkish border), Pakistan (border), Iraq (border), Azerbaijan (border), Kermanshah, Sanandaj, Iraqi Kurdistan.

Why: The Iranian government is concerned about potential internal unrest, Israeli agents, ethnic separatists, and exiled opposition groups, especially after the recent conflict with Israel. They aim to consolidate power and suppress dissent.

How: Security forces are conducting widespread arrests, setting up pop-up checkpoints, searching phones, and deploying Revolutionary Guard and Basij paramilitary units. Troops have been deployed to borders to prevent infiltration.

✕ Close Trump claims Iran-Israel ceasefire going well and Tehran won’t be building bombs for a long time

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President Donald Trump has insisted the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities was a success, claiming it obliterated Tehran’s nuclear programme and set it back decades.

Mr Trump compared the US operation to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in Japan, which killed an estimated 150,000 to 246,000 people, mostly civilians.

“That hit ended the war. I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing, that ended that war. This ended that with the war,” he said at the Nato summit.

A leaked preliminary intelligence assessment reportedly found that the US military strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities at the weekend did not destroy the country’s nuclear programme.

Mr Trump admitted the early intelligence was “very inconclusive” before doubling down on his claims the attack destroyed the nuclear sites.

Iran admitted the country’s nuclear sites had been badly damaged.

Earlier, Mr Trump claimed he had “stopped the war” as a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appeared to hold. “It was my great honor to Destroy All Nuclear facilities & capability, and then, STOP THE WAR!” he wrote.

Central Baotou, an industrial hub of 2.7 million people that abuts the Gobi desert in north China, feels just like any other second-tier Chinese city. Large shopping malls featuring western chains including Starbucks and KFC stand alongside street after street of busy local restaurants, where people sit outside and children play late into the evening, enjoying the relative relief of the cooler temperatures that arrive after dark in Inner Mongolia’s baking summer.

But a short drive into the city’s suburbs reveal another typical, less hospitable, Chinese scene. Factories crowd the city’s edges, with chimneys belching white plumes of smoke. As well as steel and silicon plants, Baotou is home to China’s monopoly on rare earths, the metallic elements that are used in oil refining equipment and car batteries and that have become a major sticking point in the US-China trade war.

More than 80% of China’s rare earth reserves are in Baotou. Metals such as cerium and lanthanum are crucial for modern technologies ranging from smartphone screens to vehicle braking systems. Certain rare earths, such as samarium, are used in military-grade magnets, including by the US.

View image in fullscreen A satellite image showing the city of Baotou and its rare earth mines. One of the most notorious tailings ponds in the area is the Weikuang tailings dam, owned by the state-owned Baogang Group. Photograph: EJ Atlas

That has made them a useful bargaining chip for Beijing in the trade war. China has long objected to Washington’s embargo on the export of advanced semiconductors to China, and now appears to be returning in kind by cutting off western manufacturers from critical elements in their supply chain.

In April, Beijing restricted the export of several rare earths, before agreeing to reinstate export licences for some of them after recent talks in London.

The restrictions have already had global effects, with Ford temporarily closing a car factory in Chicago because of the shortage. On Monday, a Ford executive said the company was living “hand to mouth” to keep its factories open. In a fiery speech last week, the president of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, accused China of “weaponising” its dominance of the rare earths supply chain. Access to the commodities is reportedly top of the agenda for an upcoming EU-China summit.

An economic boon, an environmental hazard

Rare earths have been central to life in Baotou since long before the region’s geology made global headlines.

The metals were first discovered in China in Bayan Obo, a mining district 150km north of Baotou, in the 1930s. But production did not ramp up until the 1990s, when China entered a period of rapid economic reform and opening up. Between 1990 and 2000, China’s production increased by 450% to 73,000 metric tonnes. At the same time, production in other countries, namely the US, declined, giving China a near monopoly on the global supply. In 2024, the government’s quota for rare earths production was 270,000 tonnes. The Bayan Obo mining district is now a closely guarded community of people living in the shadow of massive mines and their toxic waste products.

View image in fullscreen A map of mines in Bayan Obo. Rare earths were first discovered in the area, north of Baotou, in the 1930s. Photograph: EJ Atlas

Baotou’s rich reserves of natural resources have been good for the economy. The city’s GDP per capita is 165,000 yuan (£17,000), compared with the national average of 95,700 yuan, although locals grumble about an economic slowdown, which is affecting the whole country. According to state media, last year the industry generated more than 100bn yuan for the city for the first time. But the industry also has an environmental impact.

Toxic, often radioactive byproducts of rare earths processing are dumped into man-made ditches known as “tailings ponds”. One of the most notorious tailings ponds in the area is the Weikuang tailings dam, owned by the state-owned Baogang Group. For many years it was the world’s biggest dumping ground for rare earths waste products. It was not properly lined and there were fears about its toxic contents seeping into the groundwater and towards the nearby Yellow River, a major source of drinking water for northern China. According to the Ministry for Ecology and Environment, a clean-up project of one of the Yellow River’s tributaries in Baotou resulted in levels of ammonia nitrogen, a rare earths processing byproduct, decreasing by 87% between 2020 and 2024.

View image in fullscreen Pipes coming from a rare earth smelting plant spew polluted water into a vast tailings dam near Xinguang Village, located on the outskirts of the city of Baotou in China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region in 2010. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

In the 2000s and 2010s, investigations into the villages around Baotou revealed orthopaedic problems, birth defects and an “epidemic” of cancer. Because microscopic rare earth elements can cross the blood-brain barrier and deposit in the brain, exposure has been linked to a number of neurological problems such as motor and sensory disabilities, and they can also affect the neurological development of foetuses in pregnant women.

A study published in 2020 found that children in Baotou were particularly likely to be exposed to rare earth elements through road dust, something that the researchers described as a “serious risk”. Another study found that the daily intake of airborne rare earths elements in mining areas was up to 6.7mg, well above the 4.2 mg level that is considered to be relatively safe.

“Large-scale extraction quite often proceeds at the expense of the health and well-being of surrounding communities, pretty much regardless of the context,” says Julie Klinger, an associate professor at the University Delaware who specialises in rare earths.

Although the technologies to process rare earths in less environmentally harmful ways exist in theory, they are rarely used because of cost.

“I doubt they could maintain their production costs if they took such steps,” says Craig Hart, a lecturer at John Hopkins University who focuses on rare earths.

Cleaning up in Baotou

Environmentalists note that part of the reason that China has been able to dominate global supplies of rare earths at competitive prices is because, as well as being rich in natural resources, it has also been willing to let poor, rural people bear the brunt of the toxic, dirty work. But now China wants to clean up its image.

View image in fullscreen The demolished site of Xinguang Number One Village, one of the so-called cancer villages in Baotou. Photograph: Amy Hawkins/The Guardian

In 2022, state media announced that Baotou’s major tailings pond had been transformed into an urban wetland. Birdwatchers could come and enjoy the pristine waters of the newly purified pond, which apparently attracted a range of migratory birds. When the Guardian visited the site of the new birders paradise, however, most of the site was blocked from view behind a newly built concrete wall. A peek over the wall revealed an expanse of arid mud. Around the area the demolished remains of the once notorious “cancer villages” were scattered among rusting pipes and dilapidated warehouses. One overgrown, abandoned dumpling restaurant was the only evidence of the communities that used to live there.

At the site of another village once cited locally as having particularly high cancer rates, a large silicon factory occupied the area.

It’s not clear where the residents have been moved to. A nearby, newly built complex of multi-storey apartment buildings appeared to be intended as housing for the relocated villagers, but few people roamed the streets. Local officials physically blocked the Guardian from speaking to any residents around the villages.

Baotou’s local government did not respond to a request for comment.

Iranian authorities are shifting their focus from a ceasefire with Israel to an intensified internal security crackdown, involving mass arrests, executions, and increased military presence, particularly in the tumultuous Kurdish region. This escalation follows Israel’s airstrikes that began on June 13, targeting Revolutionary Guards, internal security forces, and nuclear sites.

Despite hopes among Israeli officials and exiled opposition groups for a mass uprising against the Islamic Republic, significant protests have yet to emerge. However, Iranian officials are concerned about potential unrest, especially in Kurdish areas, prompting Revolutionary Guard and Basij paramilitary units to be put on high alert.

Activists within Iran are adopting a cautious approach due to fears of the regime’s punitive response. Human rights organizations report over 700 political arrests and executions of accused spies since the Israeli strikes began, with additional military deployments to prevent potential infiltrations from neighboring countries.

(With inputs from agencies.)

Istanbul, Turkey/Baghdad, Iraq

Reuters

Iranian authorities are pivoting from a ceasefire with Israel to intensify an internal security crackdown across the country with mass arrests, executions and military deployments, particularly in the restive Kurdish region, officials and activists said.

Within days of Israel’s airstrikes beginning on 13th June, Iranian security forces started a campaign of widespread arrests accompanied by an intensified street presence based around checkpoints, the officials and activists said.

People walk near a mural of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, amid the Iran-Israel conflict, in Tehran, Iran, on 23rd June, 2025. PICTURE: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters/File photo

Some in Israel and exiled opposition groups had hoped the military campaign, which targeted Revolutionary Guards and internal security forces as well as nuclear sites, would spark a mass uprising and the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.

While Reuters has spoken to numerous Iranians angry at the government for policies they believed had led to the Israeli attack, there has been no sign yet of any significant protests against the authorities.

However, one senior Iranian security official and two other senior officials briefed on internal security issues said the authorities were focused on the threat of possible internal unrest, particularly in Kurdish areas.

Revolutionary Guard and Basij paramilitary units were put on alert and internal security was now the primary focus, said the senior security official.

The official said authorities were worried about Israeli agents, ethnic separatists and the People’s Mujahideen Organisation, an exiled opposition group that has previously staged attacks inside Iran.

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Activists within the country are lying low.

“We are being extremely cautious right now because there’s a real concern the regime might use this situation as a pretext,” said a rights activist in Tehran who was jailed during mass protests in 2022.

The activist said he knew dozens of people who had been summoned by authorities and either arrested or warned against any expressions of dissent.

Iranian rights group HRNA said on Monday it had recorded arrests of 705 people on political or security charges since the start of the war.

Many of those arrested have been accused of spying for Israel, HRNA said. Iranian state media reported three were executed on Tuesday in Urmia, near the Turkish border, and the Iranian-Kurdish rights group Hengaw said they were all Kurdish.

Iran’s Foreign and Interior Ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Checkpoints and searches

One of the officials briefed on security said troops had been deployed to the borders of Pakistan, Iraq and Azerbaijan to stop infiltration by what the official called terrorists. The other official briefed on security acknowledged that hundreds had been arrested.

Iran’s mostly Sunni Muslim Kurdish and Baluch minorities have long been a source of opposition to the Islamic Republic, chafing against rule from the Persian-speaking, Shi’ite government in Tehran.

The three main Iranian Kurdish separatist factions based in Iraqi Kurdistan said some of their activists and fighters had been arrested and described widespread military and security movements by Iranian authorities.

Ribaz Khalili from the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) said Revolutionary Guards units had deployed in schools in Iran’s Kurdish provinces within three days of Israel’s strikes beginning and gone house-to-house for suspects and arms.

The Guards had taken protective measures too, evacuating an industrial zone near their barracks and closing major roads for their own use in bringing reinforcements to Kermanshah and Sanandaj, two major cities in the Kurdish region.

A cadre from the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), who gave her nom de guerre of Fatma Ahmed, said the party had counted more than 500 opposition members being detained in Kurdish provinces since the airstrikes began.

Ahmed and an official from the Kurdish Komala party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, both described checkpoints being set up across Kurdish areas with physical searches of people as well as checks of their phones and documents.