you are correct that anti-imperialism and socialism are inextricable. anyone fighting imperialism is furthering the cause of socialism, even if they are anti-socialists doing it purely out of nationalist reasons. as long as there are socialists existing to push a movement further, we must ally ourselves with whoever is on the same side of the contradiction as us against capitalism, with the understanding and awareness that at some point when contradictions resolve and new ones become primary, we may no longer be on the same side of the contradiction.

an important example of this from the CPC is discussed in this lecture series from Tsinghua University on Socialism With Chinese Characteristics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl-0YVz7c-I

That video (200) is the beginning of the section I am referring to, but there are 12 videos in the section after it.

I haven't seen it in years but tl;dr is that the CPC had to ally with people they knew were class enemies that they would later have to fight against (Chinese national bourgeoisie in this case) in order to resolve the most relevant contradictions of semi-colonialism and semi-fuedalism, then once the japanese were expelled and the chinese warlords quelled they were now immediately at odds with their national bourgeoisie. so this could happen with some people who prioritize anti-imperialism but have no class consciousness, particularly if they are in positions of power within a bourgeois society like clergy or merchants who may want to be the ones to seize power when the common enemy is defeated. this is why there must be an organized vanguard party to ensure that the masses have an alternative leadership of workers to continue making demands beyond anti-imperialism or else an organized bourgeois party will be prepared to co-opt the movement and keep power in their hands.

as far as the Iranian "protesters," I don't remember the number but the Iranian government did say that they were capturing/killing a significant amount of Israeli assets and US proxies during that time. The deaths were because these proxies were armed by the US and israeli and were committing acts of violence, which was well documented. they were openly calling for and trying to do an armed insurrection, including murdering people, so yeah getting killed or imprisoned might happen if you try that. can't really add them to the number of murdered "protesters" when they are armed insurrectionists doing a literal coup attempt