The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 6,126 people have been killed, including protesters, children and civilians, based on reports from its network inside Iran.
Iranian state television has reported 3,117 deaths. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei acknowledged in late December that “several thousand people” had been killed, blaming what he described as “domestic and international criminals.”
Independent estimates are significantly higher. Time magazine and Britain’s Guardian have cited sources placing the death toll at around 30,000. Dr. Hashim Moazenzadeh, a surgeon in France who says he remains in contact with medical staff in Iran, told Euronews Farsi that forensic data indicate at least 22,000 deaths.
“Evidence showed security forces shot people who were fleeing,” Moazenzadeh said, citing gunshot wounds to the backs of victims’ heads.
The U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Mai Sato, said reports she has received suggest casualties “may reach tens of thousands,” noting that internet outages and lack of independent access prevent accurate counts.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said security forces used live ammunition, metal pellets, tear gas and beatings against largely peaceful protesters. Amnesty said it verified video showing at least 205 body bags at a makeshift morgue near Tehran.
Human rights groups have also reported that families were asked to pay thousands of dollars to retrieve the bodies of relatives and that some victims may have been killed after receiving hospital treatment.
The Iran International news website reported Tuesday that as many as 36,500 people may have been killed, citing what it said were documents from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard submitted to the country’s Supreme National Security Council. The outlet said the deaths allegedly occurred over just two days, Jan. 8 and 9, calling the scale of violence unprecedented even by regional standards.
The protests began in late December over economic grievances, including soaring food prices, and later spread nationwide. Authorities imposed a sweeping information blackout as demonstrations grew, sharply restricting information from inside the country.
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Source: PAP, Euronews