The death toll in the suppressed demonstrations in Iran is more than 16,500, according to a British Sunday report citing an account put together by a network of Iranian doctors that far exceeds previous estimates.
The doctors said that most of the dead were people under 30 and that at least 330,000 people were injured, with much of the killing coming over a two-day period, the Sunday Times reported. Among those killed were children and pregnant women.
Though the report did not specify the dates, according to previous accounts there was a spike in killings on Friday, January 9, the day after Iran’s regime cut off access to the internet, and it continued on Saturday.
The doctors’ figures were compiled from staff in eight major eye hospitals and 16 emergency departments across Iran. Doctors were able to communicate using banned Starlink internet terminals, tens of thousands of which have reportedly been smuggled into Iran.
Some patients in hospitals died because security forces refused to allow life-saving blood transfusions. In some medical centers, staff donated blood in an effort to save patients, the report said.
“This is a whole new level of brutality,” Prof. Amir Parasta, an Iranian-German eye surgeon who helped put together the network of doctors, told the newspaper. “This time they are using military-grade weapons and what we are seeing are gunshot and shrapnel wounds in the head, neck, and chest.”
An Iranian in Mashhad just shared this footage of hundreds of defenseless men sprinting after Khamenei’s IRGC forces with nothing left to lose. Live ammunition, tear gas, snipers…nothing is stopping them.
According to Parasta, the figures are conservative, as many people did not go to hospitals out of fear they would be snatched up by security forces. Videos from Iran and previous reports have said that forces arrested patients in hospitals who had gunshot wounds.
In a speech broadcast by state television to mark a religious holiday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday the protests had left “several thousand” people dead — the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualties from the wave of protests.
An Iranian official in the region said on Sunday the authorities had verified at least 5,000 people had been killed in protests, including about 500 security personnel, while blaming “terrorists and armed rioters” for killing “innocent Iranians.”
The official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, also told Reuters some of the heaviest clashes and highest number of deaths were in the Iranian Kurdish areas in northwest Iran, a region where Kurdish separatists have been active and where flare-ups have been among the most violent in past periods of unrest.
“The final toll is not expected to increase sharply,” the official said, claiming that “Israel and armed groups abroad” had supported and equipped those taking to the streets.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on Friday had put the death toll at 3,090, including at least 163 people identified as affiliated with the government. The group relies on a network of activists inside Iran that confirms all reported fatalities.
The Iranian doctors also noted a high amount of eye injuries, with security forces reportedly using shotguns to fire pellets at protesters, resulting in at least 700 to 1,000 people losing eyes. Previous reports have also told of eye injuries from shotguns.
However, the total number of people blinded could run into several thousand.
In Tehran, the Noor Clinic alone treated 7,000 eye injuries, the Sunday Times report said.
A source whose brother works at the clinic said that in one night, there were 800 incidents of doctors removing people’s eyes due to shotgun pellet injuries.
The source reported that his brother had spoken to doctors in other cities, and it is possible that more than 8,000 people across Iran have been blinded.
“I’ve spoken to dozens of doctors on the ground, and they are really shocked and crying,” Parasta said. “These are surgeons who have seen war.”
Videos and reports from Iran showed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its allied Basij militia roamed the streets on motorbikes, firing at protesters. In some cases, security forces on pickup trucks used machine guns.
The Sunday Times spoke to some people who had witnessed the carnage firsthand and were able to escape from Iran during the protests.
One said, “Tell the whole world that on Friday, they sprayed everyone with gunfire. The IRGC forces were calmly trying to aim for people’s heads.”
“Snipers on rooftops were shooting people in the back of the head,” another was quoted as saying. “We were walking when suddenly several people next to us would collapse to the ground, covered in blood. When we tried to go toward them to carry the bodies away, they opened fire on us.”
A leaked video from Iran, dated Sunday, January 11, shows a joint patrol of Iranian police and the IRGC’s Basij militia operating in the northern Mazandaran Province, with Basij members armed with assault rifles and machine guns.
“Every day, large trucks arrive carrying piles of bodies stacked on top of each other, and families have to search for their loved ones,” another escapee said. “The streets here smell of blood. All day long, IRGC forces patrol the city with weapons and masks on their faces, threatening people.”
The casualty numbers recall the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution and dwarf the death toll from previous bouts of unrest that have been suppressed by the state, including in 2009 and 2022.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly blamed the US for the mass demonstrations they have called “riots” and “terrorist” operations.
US President Donald Trump, who had threatened to attack Iran over the slaying of protesters, appeared to call on Saturday for the end of Khamenei’s rule in Iran.
