For over two weeks, tens of thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets, chanting for the regime to step down and “death to the dictator,” referring to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The protests have grown in scale as the reported death toll among protesters has skyrocketed.
However, the regime in Tehran claims that the situation is “completely under control.” On Monday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed, according to Al Jazeera, that the protests had degenerated into violence to give US President Donald Trump “an excuse to interfere.” The minister called on regime loyalists to gather for large counter-demonstrations.
Exactly what is happening is difficult to know, as internet and telephony have been down for three and a half days as of Monday morning. The little information that is leaking out - often with the help of Starlink satellites - is difficult to verify, but consistent information from human rights organizations in exile claims that the death toll is very high.
“Shooting at everything and everyone”
Several videos on social media show relatives of protesters searching for loved ones among rows of body bags. One video shows a screen at a forensic institute just south of Tehran, where the dead are identified through a long list of photos while loudspeakers call out names to relatives gathered. The total number of images on the screen, where the date January 9 is visible, is 250.
"They are shooting at everything and everyone," a protester in Kermanshah in western Iran told The Guardian last week.
On Thursday, before the internet was shut down, a journalist in Mashhad described the regime's brutal tactics to the British newspaper:
"They are shooting at crowds from vans and motorbikes. I have seen them slow down and deliberately shoot at people's faces. Many have been injured. The streets are full of blood. I fear I will soon witness a sea of dead."
Darkness is defeated
Among the few dead identified is a 23-year-old student in Tehran, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights said. She was reportedly killed on Thursday by a shot to the back of the head at close range. The family traveled from Kermanshah to Tehran to identify her among “the bodies of hundreds of young people,” the organization said.
Communications in the country were shut down by the regime in Tehran on Thursday evening. According to analysts, the strategy is aimed at making it more difficult for the protests, but also at obscuring the regime's crackdown on the demonstrators from the outside world.
More than 10,600 people have been arrested during the protests, according to the US-based organization HRANA.
