Tehran, Jan 13 (.) About 12,000 people including security personnel have been killed in protests in Iran, following the nationwide protests and the brutal crackdown by security personnel.
According to Iran International’s sources near the Supreme National Security Council and presidential office, accounts from several sources within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the cities of Mashhad, Kermanshah, and Isfahan; testimonies from eyewitnesses and families of those killed; field reports; data linked to medical centers; and information provided by doctors and nurses in various cities.
The data, gathered from these two sources, and cross-checked with corroborated reports by medical authorities and eyewitness accounts, as well as the security institutions of the country take the estimated death toll to 12,000, marking the largest political killing within the Islamic Republic in years.
The largest number of killings were reportedly carried out by security forces within two consecutive days from January 8-9, with the intensity of violence, and the number of deaths in such a short time span within the existing geographical scope, being unprecedented.
Those killed were mainly shot, with the majority of fatalities attributed to the IRGC and the Basij militia.
As per the media agency’ sources, the violence was not the result of random, spontaneous clashes but a coordinated, calculated, targeted operation, as part of a ruthless state crackdown.
According to information emanating from the Supreme National Security Council and the presidential offices, the the explicit use of live ammunition was authorised at the highest level, as these directives were issued by the council and carried out with the explicit knowledge and approval of the heads of all three branches of government, acting under the authority of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Many of the victims were reportedly under the age of 30, underscoring the extent to which the crackdown has fallen on younger Iranians, who have formed the backbone of the protest movement.
Despite this, videos showing nighttime clashes have continued to surface over the past week, depicting gunfire, burning vehicles and buildings, and violent confrontations between demonstrators and security forces.
The media landscape inside Iran has also been effectively silenced. Hundreds of national and local newspapers have stopped publishing since Thursday, an unprecedented shutdown in the history of Iran’s press. At present, only state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and a small number of tightly controlled news websites remain active, all operating under heavy censorship and direct security oversight.
The unrest, initially sparked by spiralling prices, unemployment and a collapsing economy, has evolved into the most serious internal challenge to the authorities in at least three years. It comes at a time of heightened international pressure following Israeli and US strikes last year, further straining an already fragile system.
Iran’s clerical leadership, in power since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, while acknowledging the economic grievances, has dismissed the protests as little more than “riots” and “foreign funded political sabotage,” and have sworn to crush the demonstrations with a merciless sweeping security crackdown.
Officials in Tehran have continued to justify the repression, and repeatedly blamed Washington and Jerusalem for inciting the unrest, insisting that the protests have been “hijacked by terrorists” and “foreign agents”.
. . PRP