Iranian university students for the last two days have engaged in a new wave of anti-government demonstrations across the country, marking the first major rallies since a violent state crackdown in January.

The protests have reportedly taken place on at least seven campuses as students demand increased political freedom, leading to confrontations with government loyalists, according to various news reports, citing videos of the incidents.

The protests “come as Iran’s clerical leaders struggle to manage uprisings at home and a looming risk of war with Washington,” the New York Times reported.

“They are also some of the first protests since security forces violently put down nationwide protests in January, killing thousands of people,” the Times added.

The news comes as President Donald Trump considers a targeted attack against Iran for possibly working to develop a nuclear weapon.

According to Reuters, Iran’s state TV claimed the protesters were just “pretending to be students” attacking pro-government students in Tehran.

But a video showed “rows of marchers at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology condemning Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a ‘murderous leader,’ and calling for Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s toppled shah, to be a new monarch,” the outlet reported.

BBC reported that verified photos “have also emerged showing a peaceful sit-in protest at the capital’s Shahid Beheshti University.”

“The BBC has also verified footage from another Tehran university, Amir Kabir University of Technology, showing chanting against the government. In Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city in the north-east, local students reportedly chanted: ‘Freedom, freedom’ and ‘Students, shout, shout for your rights.'”

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