[Just another Joe]

If it was a military coup then the military should be in power, yes?

If the military is in power why are there thugs killing in the streets with no military presence stopping them, asserting the power of the military?

It doesn't make any kind of sense.

Now, an attempted coup might make sense.

[silverleaf]

If the mullahs have lost faith and trust in the military (especially the iRGC)- then a precursor of a coup has already occurred. The military has lost its loyalty to the regime. The breakout will be when the regime can no longer contain an untrustworthy military by confinement and purges of its leadership.

The mullah’s managed to break and take control of the power of the shah’s military and has spent 30 years building a parallel (but now more powerful?) ideologically driven Rev Guard counterforce.

So if they lose confidence in large parts of the IRGC - what next? We don’t hear much about what is happening out in the provinces, beyond the cities, in the small villages that provide the peasant manpower for the paramilitary.