As protests that erupted from Tehran’s Grand Bazaar continued and spread across all Iranian provinces, reports emerging from Iran indicate a steady rise in the number of people killed, injured, and arrested. These figures change from one moment to the next as confrontations between protesters and security forces intensify.
While the regime continues to repeat its official narrative in an increasingly harsh and arrogant tone, accusing citizens of treason, collaboration, and terrorism, opposition websites reported that the fourteenth day, last Sunday, was the bloodiest day of the protests. The regime reportedly took advantage of the internet shutdown to use live ammunition against protesters, away from the eyes of the world.
According to preliminary reports issued by human rights organizations, at least 538 people have been killed, thousands injured, and more than 10,600 arrested, including 48 members of the security forces, before the protests entered their third week. Meanwhile, the HRANA news agency documented the killing of 544 people, including eight children, the transfer of more than 10,681 individuals to prisons, and the outbreak of protests at 585 locations across 186 cities, spanning all 31 provinces of Iran.
Despite the internet blackout and Iran’s isolation from the outside world entering its fourth day, which has limited the flow of news and kept many facts about the bloody crackdown under a veil of censorship, while also obstructing access to information and its documentation, some field reports continue to be transmitted through alternative channels. These reports show that protests are still ongoing under live fire. Videos have emerged of demonstrations in Tehran, Bandar Abbas, and other cities, where the sound of gunfire can be clearly heard, in addition to footage showing drones hovering above protesters’ heads in many locations.
Moreover, some individuals managed to publish videos from inside the Kahrizak forensic morgue in Tehran. The footage shows hundreds of bodies piled up in the morgue’s front courtyard and interior hall, a development that marked an important step in exposing the regime and its repressive, security-based approach to dealing with its people.
In a shocking scene, the Iranian opposition channel Vahid Online published 12 video clips on Telegram last Sunday, showing horrifying scenes of hundreds of bodies laid out on the floor of the Kahrizak morgue. The accompanying captions indicate that these bodies belong to protesters, including children, who were killed by security forces’ gunfire. The videos also show families arriving at the morgue to identify their loved ones after receiving calls from security agencies.
The channel noted that the leaked images and videos of bodies lying on the ground at the Kahrizak morgue reveal a marked increase in the use of violence against protesters, resulting in a “statistical surge” in the number of victims.
In this context, the website Sedaye Mardom published an article titled “Families Searching for the Bodies of Their Loved Ones,” which stated: “The heavy silence and the looks of shock on families’ faces are louder than any scream. They move among the bodies, searching for any sign, a piece of clothing, a shoe, a bracelet, a facial mole… something that reveals the victim’s identity, something that in that moment may mark the end of hope and the beginning of mourning. Mothers wander among the bodies, fathers suppress their grief, and siblings whisper the names of their loved ones in silence. Suddenly, piercing cries erupt from those who find the bodies of their loved ones beneath the black covers.”
At the official level, Iranian state broadcasting published a video report about a “large mass grave” containing a number of bodies, by which it meant the Kahrizak morgue. The report attributed the killings to “terrorist protesters,” claiming the bodies belonged to security forces and innocent civilians. Meanwhile, the Iranian government declared three days of national mourning, attributing the deaths of both protesters and security personnel to the infiltration of “criminal terrorists” into the protests, and likening the “violence of protesters” to the behavior of ISIS.
In his first speech following the protests, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei accused protesters of sabotage, treason, and acting on American orders. In a televised interview, President Masoud Pezeshkian described them as “terrorists” and called for a “decisive” response by the security forces, likewise claiming they were receiving orders from the United States and Israel. Under the shadow of these narratives, state media has engaged in manipulating casualty accounts, with affiliated outlets claiming that a large proportion of those killed died from bladed weapons and that gunfire occurred at very close range, but not by security forces, rather by protesters themselves.
At the international level, the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission urged the Iranian government to immediately restore internet and mobile phone services and to end the “violent crackdown.” It also expressed concern over reports that the Supreme National Security Council had ordered security forces to repress protests “forcefully and without restraint.” Amnesty International, for its part, issued an urgent appeal calling for visual evidence and detailed information from victims, clarifying that the aim is to prepare legal documentation to inform the international community about the ongoing crimes against protesters.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that Donald Trump would meet with senior officials in his administration to discuss “specific options” to respond to developments in Iran, including imposing additional sanctions, taking cyber measures, and reviewing the Starlink project.
Iran has entered a new wave of protests following a severe deterioration in economic conditions and an unprecedented rise in the US dollar exchange rate amid the collapse of the national currency. The protests began in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar and quickly evolved into a political movement calling for the overthrow of the regime. The situation reflects a multifaceted crisis that is not limited to being the result of international sanctions or the twelve-day war alone, but is also a direct consequence of failures in governance. For more than four decades, political and economic power has been concentrated in the hands of a corrupt elite, leaving the Iranian people hungry, poor, and destitute, taking to the streets at every opportunity because they have nothing left to lose.
