Iranian security forces deployed unknown chemical substances amid deadly crackdowns on protestors in several cities earlier this month, eyewitnesses told Iran International, causing severe breathing problems and burning pain.

Iran has deployed a nationwide militarized crackdown to scotch dissent and obscure the scale of its mass killings of protestors earlier this month, rights watchdog Amnesty International said in a report on Friday.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said democratic governments must raise the cost for Iran’s rulers to stay in power in an interview with Iranian activist Masih Alinejad.

Russia likely views Iran’s mass anti-regime protests with deep unease, but may ultimately adapt just as it did in Syria to preserve influence whether the Islamic Republic survives or a new political order emerges.

Iran’s near-total internet blackout since January 8 did not only shut down social media but collapsed the country’s last channels to the outside world, isolating families and sharply limiting what evidence of the crackdown could escape.