More than 36,500 Iranians were allegedly killed during a brutal, two-day crackdown against anti-regime protesters, the deadliest in the history of the Islamic Republic, according to a new report.
The latest estimates paint a horrific image of the violence that fell across Iran on Jan. 8 and 9 when Tehran’s security forces opened fire on thousands of civilians protesting the government’s rule and failure to fix the nation’s ailing economy.
Despite downplaying the death toll in recent weeks, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ own records allegedly acknowledge that more than 36,000 people were killed during the two-day crackdown, sources from the Supreme National Security Council told Iran International.
More than 36,000 Iranians were allegedly killed during the two-day crackdown on protesters, according to Iran International. Getty Images
Iranians search for their loved ones among the hundreds of bodies put out at a Tehran morgue. UGC/AFP via Getty Images
The outlet verified the count with other government sources, medical records, field reports, and interviews with witnesses — with the deaths reported in more than 400 cities and towns across Iran.
The data claims that more than 2,500 people were killed in Rasht, with at least 1,800 in Mashhad. There were no clear figures for Tehran, where images of hundreds of body bags littering morgues have gone viral.
The estimates from Iran International are more than seven-times larger than what has been reported so far, with the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) previously confirming 5,137 deaths on Saturday.
Mai Sato, the UN’s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, had warned that the death toll could reach 20,000 or more based on the reports coming from medical centers in the country.
A man drops to the ground, sobbing, after finding a loved one among the dead on Jan. 12. UGC/AFP via Getty Images
Iran’s National Security Council, meanwhile, had only acknowledged 3,117 deaths, with only 2,427 of those dead considered “innocent” in Tehran’s eyes.
The true death toll in Iran remains unclear amid a nationwide internet shutdown, which went into effect on the same day that the killings began.