Month: January 2026

The Chosun Daily – Iranian authorities have counted 3,117 deaths related to anti-government protests. This is the first official figure released since the protests began on the 28th of last month.

According to AFP and others on the 21st (local time), Iran’s state-run IRIB broadcast reported that among the 3,117 deaths announced that day, 2,427 were civilians and security personnel, describing them as “martyrs” and “innocent victims” under Islamic law.

Ali Akbar Velayati, secretary-general of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told state broadcaster that “the approximately 690 individuals not included in the martyr list are terrorists, rioters, and those who attacked military facilities.” He added, “The high number of martyrs demonstrates the security forces’ restraint and tolerance.”

The number of deaths disclosed this time is lower than estimates by external organizations. The previous day, the U.S.-based human rights organization HRANA reported that a total of 4,519 people, including 4,251 protesters, had died by the 24th day of the protests, with only 197 of those being security personnel involved in the crackdown. Additionally, HRANA is verifying 9,049 more cases of death.

On the 19th, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group announced the suspension of its death toll count, stating that while 3,428 citizens participating in the protests had been confirmed dead, the actual number is believed to be much higher. Mahmoud Amiri-Moghaddam, a representative of IHR, told AFP, “Iran is well-known for underreporting the number of executions carried out through state violence,” and “All evidence obtained from Iran shows that the number of deaths during the protests is significantly higher.”

Earlier, the anti-regime media outlet Iran International estimated that 12,000 people had died, while U.S. CBS News reported that sources had suggested the death toll could reach up to 20,000.

Iranian authorities, after the protests spread nationwide, completely shut down internet and communication services within the country on the 8th and began a violent crackdown. Since the 12th, protests across Iran are largely believed to have subsided.

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CBC – There is a slow, steady death count going on outside of Iran and the veil its internet blackout has drawn over the extent of the regime’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters earlier this month.

Even with what’s only known so far, analysts say it is the most brutal crackdown since the founding of the Islamic Republic nearly 50 years ago.

The number of protesters verified dead is at more than 4,000 and climbing, according to NGOs — including the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has provided credible figures during past crackdowns.

Iranian state television on Wednesday put the number of dead at just over 3,000. That’s after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that “several thousand” had been killed, blaming the United States.

“After connecting to Iranians through internet and after finishing this shutdown, [the number] will be shocking for all of us,” said Iranian exile Soran Mansournia, an activist living in the Netherlands who’s assisting another NGO, the Hiwa Foundation, with tracking the dead, injured, missing and detained.

“We estimate there are around 50,000 Starlink users in Iran, and they send information when they can,” he said, referring to the satellite internet provider that has allowed some people to get around the blackout.

“Based on this information … we expect something horrific and horrible happened in Iran,” he said, adding that Iran’s security forces continue to hunt individuals using portable satellite dishes.

There are also reports of protesters being taken from hospitals where they were being treated for injuries or arrested while giving blood, and of families being asked for “bullet fees,” money for the release of their loved ones’ bodies.

Threat of executions remains: activist

The violence ordered by the regime appears to have done its work, largely quelling protests that began at the end of December with anger over Iran’s failed economy quickly turning into demands for an end to the country’s repressive theocracy.

International reaction to the violence, which ramped up with the internet shutdown on Jan. 8, was largely overshadowed early on by U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to “send help” to protesters if they were harmed by Iran’s security forces — protesters he also encouraged to take to the streets and take over government institutions.

Last week, despite reports of thousands already dead, Trump praised Iran’s leadership for not proceeding with what he said were the planned executions of 800 political prisoners.

“And I greatly respect the fact that they cancelled that,” he said.

Since then, Trump’s threats have tapered off, although the expected arrival in the Middle East of the U.S. navy’s aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and an accompanying strike group has led to some speculation that the threat of American action remains.

Also last week, Iran’s exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, a divisive figure who has been positioning himself for a future role in Iran despite having been outside the country for decades, said he believes Trump is “a man of his word.”

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, who heads the Norwegian-based Iran Human Rights group, said Iranians didn’t risk their lives because Donald Trump asked them to, but because they have had enough of the regime.

Amiry-Moghaddam also said the threat of executions remains very real.

“The international community must also take very seriously the threats by Islamic Republic officials to issue and carry out death sentences against protesters, and must act to prevent another large-scale massacre, this time inside prisons,” he said.

“I think it’s important, within the framework of the international law, to see what the world can do and take action.”

Few visible cracks in Iranian regime

The world is busy debating the decline and perhaps fall of the international rules-based order as we know it, with all eyes at this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, focused on Trump’s threats to Greenland.

The Davos organizers reportedly rescinded an invitation to Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi to attend in the wake of the crackdown, but Iran hasn’t made many headlines at the Swiss ski resort.

Meanwhile, there have so far been few outward cracks to be seen in Iran’s governing regime or its Praetorian Guard, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), charged with protecting the integrity of the Islamic Republic.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt if the Trump administration thinks that they could very easily, for instance, decapitate this regime and do so without any costs in the wider region, then they would do that,” said Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, a lecturer at the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

He said even if there were to be an assassination attempt aimed at Khamenei, contingency plans would be in place in the political and security echelons — especially in the wake of the 12-day bombing campaign by Israel and the United States last June aimed at Iran’s nuclear program.

“All of the top echelons of the Revolutionary Guard and the army were taken out, were all killed [during the war], but you saw very rapidly they were replaced,” Sadeghi-Boroujerdi said.

Khamenei’s advanced age of 86 means there will already have been some internal jockeying for position among hardliners in the upper echelons of the clerical regime.

Sadeghi-Boroujerdi said real reformers seeking change within the Islamic Republic were purged in 2009 after protests — dubbed the Persian Spring by some — were put down.

“We have maybe more people who are more pragmatic and realize that the society has made certain demands and just for the sake of stability that they have to make certain concessions,” he said.

‘Iranian regime doesn’t really have an out’

Without the lifting of U.S.-led sanctions that have helped cripple Iran’s economy, along with corruption and mismanagement, there is no clear off-ramp for the regime.

“We have this effort to contain and manage mass discontent,” Sadeghi-Boroujerdi said. “And then at the same time, the Iranian regime doesn’t really have an out because the United States isn’t really willing to engage with it in a way that would offer genuine economic alleviation in terms of sanctions removal. So this is why you have this real crunch in Iran.”

But one where the regime is still standing. So where, then, does that leave the protesters who’ve risked their lives to bring change to the country, some more than once?

Soran Mansournia’s brother, Borhan, was shot and killed during a demonstration in the city of Kermanshah in 2019, during a previous wave of protests in Iran.

Mansournia describes the mood in Iran today as a complicated mixture of hope and fear.

“Even if the Islamic Republic suppress these movements again, I think in the near future — and I expect in less than three years — we [will] have another wave of protests in this scale and even much bigger than this one,” he said.

Unless there is more action from the international community, he said, the regime will continue to stand.

Mansournia wants more countries to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization. Canada is one of a small number to have proscribed the Revolutionary Guard in 2024. He also wants Iranian embassies abroad shut down.

“We don’t know what will happen,” he said. “But the thing that we can say is that the Islamic Republic, in people’s minds, is over for sure.”

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Euro News – Iran offered its first government-issued death toll late on Wednesday following a crackdown on nationwide protests, giving a far lower figure than activists abroad as the country’s theocracy tries to reassert control after unrest recalling the chaos surrounding its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

State television carried statements by the Interior Ministry and the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, an official body providing services to families of those killed in wars, saying 3,117 people were killed.

It added that 2,427 of the dead in the demonstrations that began on 28 December were civilians and security forces.

It did not elaborate on the rest. Iran’s government in the past has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the death toll early on Thursday was at least 4,902, with many more feared dead.

The human rights group has been accurate throughout the years on demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities.

Other groups similarly have offered higher numbers than the Iranian government tally.

The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll, in part due to authorities cutting access to the internet and blocking international calls into the country.

Iran has also reportedly limited journalists’ ability locally to report on the aftermath of the protests, instead repeatedly airing claims on state television that refer to demonstrators as “rioters” motivated by America and Israel, without offering evidence to support the allegation.

Nearly 26,500 people have also been arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Comments from officials have led to fears of some of those detained being put to death in Iran, one of the world’s top executioners.

Warning from Araghchi

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi issued his most-direct threat yet to the United States on Wednesday, warning the Islamic Republic will be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack.”

“Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” Araghchi wrote in the Wall Street Journal, referring to the 12-day conflict with Israel last June.

“This isn’t a threat, but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war.”

The comments came as Araghchi saw his invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos rescinded over the killings and as a US aircraft carrier group moved west toward the Middle East from Asia.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent days, had passed through the Strait of Malacca, a key waterway connecting the sea and Indian Ocean, by Tuesday, ship-tracking data showed.

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ICIS (Independent Commodity Intelligence Services) – Iran’s major trading partners which include China and India continue to face tariff threats from the US while Tehran announced the end to the weeks-long nationwide protests following a bloody crackdown.

• Government crackdown on protests leaves thousands dead – reports
• China PET exports to the US face further headwinds
• Little impact on India aromatics if tariffs take effect

“The sedition is over now”, Iran prosecutor general Mohammad Movahedi announced on 21 January as quoted by the judiciary’s Mizan News agency.

Iranian state television channel IRIB TV reported on the same day that 3,117 people have been killed in the protests – the first official death toll given by the government.

The death toll is higher – at least 4,500 – based on estimates from US‑based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Protesters had begun to fill the streets from 28 December 2025 after a drastic weakening of the rial (IR) amid sanctions and economic instability, with Tehran blaming “foreign agents” such as the US for the protests.

A country-wide communications blackout was put in place as the government cracked down on protesters. Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced in a televised address on 17 January 2026 that “several thousand people” had been killed.

“Iran will not lead into war but will not let domestic or international criminals go unpunished,” Khamenei said, further claiming that protests have been “extinguished”.

While US President Donald Trump had called for a new leadership in Iran, the situation has not escalated into US military intervention after days of threats that the US was “ready” to intervene.

Trump also announced on 12 January additional 25% US tariffs with “immediate effect” on any country doing business with Iran. No executive order has so far been issued for this to take effect.

Iran, a member of oil cartel OPEC, is a major supplier of crude to both China and India.

China is estimated to account for more than 80% of Iran’s crude exports, with its crude imports likely to remain strong in Q1 2026.

Concerns that Iran protests and a possible US military strike would disrupt global crude supply had sent Brent crude climbing above $65/barrel, pushing up prices of petrochemical feedstock naphtha and aromatics.

There are fears that Iran would respond to a US intervention by shutting the Strait of Hormuz, on which about one-fifth of the total global petroleum trades passes.

Oil prices have come down since last week as market fears over Iran subsided and market focus reverted back to a supply glut amid weak demand, although geopolitical risks in Europe heightened on the US’ planned annexation of Greenland.

Trump had initially warned eight European countries opposing his plans on Greenland of additional tariffs of 10% starting 1 February, which would rise to 25% on 1 June.

However, in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on 21 January, Trump retracted his threats and agreed that the US will not “use force” to take control of Greenland.

At midday, Brent crude was up by 8 cents at $65.32/barrel, while US crude edged up by 14 cents at $60.76/barrel.

US TARIFFS HANG ON MARKETS
Asian emerging market giants – China and India – are in the list of Iran’s top trading partners. Apart from crude, they also import sizeable volumes of methanol from the Middle Eastern country.

“China’s position against the indiscriminate imposition of tariffs is consistent and clear. Tariff wars and trade wars have no winners, and coercion and pressure cannot solve problems,” Liu Pengyu, spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in the US, said on 13 January.

“China firmly opposes any illicit unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction and will take all necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” Liu added.

Meanwhile, India is still in the process of working on a bilateral trade deal with the US to bring down the current 50% US tariffs on India goods.

The south Asian nation was mum on the possibility of additional tariffs by the US.

CHINA PET MARKET BRACES FOR NEW US TARIFFS
The US’ average tariffs on Chinese goods currently stand at 47%, including those imposed during Trump’s first term in office.

Notwithstanding the high tariffs, the US remains a major market for several Chinese commodities, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

If the US’ 25% additional tariffs were implemented, China’s PET exports would come under threat. This would double the current 25% tariffs that apply to Chinese PET.

“China exports a sizeable amount of PET to the US, but those are already under anti-dumping duties (ADDs) of 4.2% so that’s additional pressure on this,” ICIS analyst Salmon Aidan Lee said.

In 2025, Chinese PET exports to the US ballooned to 1.23 million tonnes from just 168,000 tonnes in the previous year, according to the ICIS Supply and Demand Database.

Front-loading of exports led to spike in PET shipments between March-May ahead of implementation of US’ reciprocal tariffs.

“China also exports a sizeable volume of textiles and fibres to the US, and the additional 25% tariffs would be a dent on these products as well,” Lee said.

Trade flows are likely to shift if the US’ additional tariffs do take effect, which could exacerbate Asia’s supply glut if cargoes bound for the US stayed in Asia.

Since the US-China trade war heightened last year, Chinese exports have shifted toward alternative destinations including southeast Asia, the EU and India.

LIMITED IMPACT ON INDIA AROMATIC EXPORTS
As for India, apart from small volumes of benzene exports on an opportunistic basis, there would be limited impact on key aromatics trade for the country, according to Darryl Xu, analyst at ICIS.

India, already facing 50% tariffs from the US over its purchases of sanctioned Russian oil, has shifted focus to boosting domestic production and local consumption to boost GDP growth.

In aid of local manufacturers, India instituted reforms including cutting goods and services tax (GST), and made available around $5 billion worth of support package for exporters under its “Export Promotion Mission” (EPM).

Amid delays in the US-India bilateral trade deal, India’s commodity exports to the US are likely to be either moved elsewhere or decline outright amid weak demand.

In December 2025, the south Asian country’s overall plastics shipments fell by 9.6% year on year to $705.9 million.

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As Member States prepare to convene in Geneva for the Human Rights Council Special Session on Iran on Friday, 23 January 2026, Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA) has prepared this memo to provide the most up-to-date and credible information available. The information that follows draws on verified findings compiled through HRANA reporting and corroborated open-source documentation. It is worth noting that HRA numbers represent absolute minimums. The investigation into the events is ongoing. The information published in this memo is current as of 21 Jan 18h ET. A full-length report detailing HRANA’s findings from 28 December onward will be available in the coming days. 

The geographic scope 

The protests reflect nationwide protest activity. HRA has documented:

• 633 protests
• 192 cities (without repetition)
• 31 provinces

Verified fatalities 

There are 4,902 fatalities verified by HRA to date.

• 4,622 are identified as protesters.
• 40 are children under the age of 18.
• More than 9,000 additional cases remain under review under HRA’s verification procedures.

Use of lethal force against civilians

Verified documentation indicates that, following a crackdown by the Police(FARAJA) at the outset, IRGC Ground Forces and Basij units were deployed across the country to suppress protests. HRA has verified photo and video evidence indicating protesters were shot at close range in multiple locations. International standards governing law enforcement use of force require that lethal force be used only as a last resort, and only where strictly necessary to protect life. Child rights obligations require particular restraint and heightened protection for children. The reported patterns, including close-range shootings and firing into crowds, raise serious concerns of unlawful killings and excessive or indiscriminate use of force. HRA has documented the presence and use of ¹:

• Military Assault Rifles, including AK-47 / AKM 
• Handguns Using Live Ammunition
• Paintball Guns (Used as Repressive Tools as previously reported²)

• Tippmann 98 Custom

• Tippmann FT-12

• Shotguns and Pellet Weapons
• Sniper Rifles
• Heavy Machine Guns Mounted on Vehicles

Injuries and access to medical care

HRA has documented 7,389 serious injuries, including serious injuries to the eye; many injuries are consistent with the use of live ammunition.
Additional confirmed documentation includes cases in which individuals were transferred from hospital settings to detention facilities without receiving adequate medical care, raising concerns regarding denial of treatment and potential ill-treatment.

Detention and coerced confessions

HRA has documented 26,541 arrests, including 173 children under the age of 18. HRA has additionally documented more than 181 forced confessions broadcast on state television or media close to security agencies, raising concerns regarding coercion, due process violations, and the risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

Implications for the Special Session

The documented patterns indicate a sustained response involving the use of lethal force, mass arrests, and coercive practices. Member States should underscore the urgency of extending the mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFMI) to ensure independent and impartial investigations, continued evidence collection and preservation, and sustained reporting to the Council. Member States should also reinforce accountability pathways consistent with international law, including through enhanced cooperation on documentation and information-sharing, and support for relevant investigative and accountability mechanisms at the international and national levels.

¹ List is nonexhaustive
^{2 https://spreadingjustice.org/hra-urges-tippmann-sports-llc-to-condemn-the-iranian-governments-use-of-its-equipment-in-the-repression-of-protests/} 

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Qatar Tribune – The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session this week in response to the brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in Iran, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The meeting, to be held in Geneva on Friday, was requested by Germany, Britain, Iceland, Moldova and North Macedonia, the spokesman for the UN body said. The agenda will focus on “the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

The 47-member UN Human Rights Council can draw attention to alleged abuses, adopt resolutions and mandate investigations, but it does not have the power to impose sanctions. Thousands of people are believed to have been killed by security forces during protests against Iran’s authoritarian leadership, which erupted in Tehran on December 28.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it has verified nearly 4,000 deaths, with a further almost 9,000 fatalities still under review.

Meanwhile, Iran suspended the publication of the newspaper Ham-Mihan because of two critical articles, the Tasnim news agency reported on Monday, citing the Islamic Republic’s press regulatory body.

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BB News – According to HRANA, there have been 4519 confirmed deaths so far, with over 9000 more under investigation. Among the deceased are 4251 protesters and 197 security personnel.

Internet access in Iran remains restricted, and only gradually are photographs and videos beginning to emerge that allow for an assessment of the true scale of violence by the authorities in suppressing mass protests.

In its report, HRANA points to a disturbing video in which, according to medical professionals, both killed and wounded individuals receiving medical assistance may have been shot.

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ABC News – Iran’s foreign minister issued the most direct threat yet Wednesday against the United States after Tehran’s bloody crackdown on protesters, warning the Islamic Republic will be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack.”

The comments by Abbas Araghchi, who saw his invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos rescinded over the killings, comes as an American aircraft carrier group moves westward toward the Middle East from Asia. American fighter jets and other equipment appears to be moving in the Mideast after a major U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean saw troops seize Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

Meanwhile, an Iranian Kurdish separatist group in Iraq claimed Iran targeted one of its bases in a drone and missile attack that killed at least one fighter. Iran did not immediately acknowledge the attack, which would be the first foreign operation Tehran has launched since the protests started.

Araghchi made the threat in an opinion article published by The Wall Street Journal. In it, the foreign minister contended “the violent phase of the unrest lasted less than 72 hours” and sought again to blame armed demonstrators for the violence. Videos that have slipped out of Iran despite an internet shutdown appear to show security forces repeatedly using live fire to target apparently unarmed protesters, something unaddressed by Araghchi.

“Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” Araghchi wrote, referring to the 12-day war launched by Israel on Iran in June. “This isn’t a threat, but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war.”

He added: “An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House. It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe.”

Araghchi’s comments likely refer to Iran’s short- and medium-range missiles. The Islamic Republic relied on ballistic missiles to target Israel in the war and left its stockpile of the shorter-range missiles unused, something that could be fired to target American bases and interests in the Persian Gulf. Already, there have been some restrictions on U.S. diplomats traveling to American bases in both Kuwait and Qatar.

Mideast nations, particularly diplomats from Gulf Arab countries, had lobbied Trump not to attack. Last week, Iran shut its airspace, likely in anticipation of a strike.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent days, had passed through the Strait of Malacca, a key waterway connecting the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, by Tuesday, ship-tracking data showed.

A U.S. Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft carrier and three accompanying destroyers were heading west.

While naval and other defense officials stopped short of saying the carrier strike group was headed to the Middle East, its current heading and location in the Indian Ocean means it is only days away from moving into the region. Meanwhile, U.S. military images released in recent days showed F-15E Strike Eagles arriving in the Mideast and forces in the region moving a HIMARS missile system, the type used with great success by Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in the country in 2022.

Iranian state television, which has confirmed attacks on the group in the past, did not acknowledge the assault.

A handful of Iranian Kurdish dissident or separatist groups — some with armed wings — have long found a safe haven in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, where their presence has been a point of friction between the central government in Baghdad and Tehran. The PAK has claimed it launched attacks in Iran as a crackdown on the demonstrations took place, something reported by semiofficial Iranian news agencies as well.

The death toll from the protests has reached at least 4,519 people, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said. The agency has been accurate throughout the years on demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll.

The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution that brought the Islamic Republic into being. Although there have been no protests for days, there are fears the death toll could increase significantly as information gradually emerges from a country still under a government-imposed shutdown of the internet since Jan. 8.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that the protests had left “several thousand” people dead and blamed the United States. It was the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualties.

More than 26,300 people have been arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Comments from officials have led to fears of some of those detained being put to death in Iran, one of the world’s top executioners. That and the killing of peaceful protesters have been two red lines laid down by Trump in the tensions.

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BBC – The pictures, which are too graphic to show without blurring, reveal the bloodied, swollen and bruised faces of at least 326 victims – including 18 women. The images, displayed in a south Tehran mortuary, are one of the only ways families have been able to identify their dead loved ones.

Many of the victims were too disfigured to be identified, and 69 people had been labelled in Persian as John or Jane Doe, suggesting their identity was unknown when the photo was taken. Only 28 of the victims had labels with clearly visible names in the photos.

Labels on more than 100 victims, who had their date of death recorded, showed that date as 9 January, one of the deadliest nights for protesters in Tehran so far.

The city’s streets were set on fire during clashes with security forces, with protesters chanting slogans against the supreme leader and the Islamic Republic. It followed a call for nationwide protests from Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late shah.

The leaked photos provide a small snapshot of the thousands believed to have been killed at the hands of the Iranian state.

BBC Verify has been tracking the spread of protests across Iran since they erupted in late December, but the near total internet blackout imposed by the authorities has made it extremely difficult to document the scale of the government’s violence against those who oppose it.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has publicly acknowledged several thousand people have been killed but blamed the US, Israel and those he described as “seditionists”.

Despite the blackout entering its third week, a small number of people have managed to get some information out.

Hundreds of close-up images of victims taken from inside the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre were leaked to BBC Verify.

We analysed 392 photos of victims and were able to identify 326 people – some had multiple pictures taken of them from different angles. Sources claimed the true number of dead at the mortuary ran into the thousands.

One source, who we are not naming for their safety, told us they weren’t prepared for the level of devastation they encountered inside the mortuary complex, and said they saw victims ranging from as young as 12 or 13 to 60 and 70-year-olds. “It was just too much,” they said.

Amid the chaos inside the mortuary, family members and friends were huddled together around a screen, we were told. They were trying to identify their loved ones while hundreds of images of the dead flicked across the screen.

The slideshow lasted for hours, they said, adding that many of the victims’ injuries were so severe they could not be identified. One man’s face was so swollen his eyes were barely visible. Another man still had a breathing tube in his mouth, suggesting he died after receiving medical treatment.

Some victims were so badly injured that their families asked to see the pictures again and to zoom in on their faces to make sure it was really them, we were told. At other times people recognised their loved ones instantly and were seen collapsing to the floor, screaming.

Many photos showed unzipped body bags with papers laid close to their faces, identifying them by name, ID number or date of death. In some cases, we were told, the only identifier was a bank card laid on top of a body bag – the victims’ last remaining possession.

BBC Verify has separately corroborated videos from the same mortuary that demonstrate the violence perpetrated against protesters. One shows the body of what appears to be a child, while another shows a man with a clear gunshot wound in the middle of his head. Both videos are too distressing to show.

Some Iranians have been posting the names of victims killed by security forces when they manage to connect to the internet through Starlink or even using networks from neighbouring countries, though these opportunities are incredibly rare.

We checked the names of victims identified in the mortuary against social media posts reporting the names of the dead and found five matches, but are not revealing the names as we cannot contact the victims’ families.

BBC Verify has tracked the spread of anti-government protests across 71 towns and cities in Iran since they first erupted on 28 December through verified video, though the true number of areas where demonstrations have taken place is likely much higher.

The few images that people have managed to upload through Starlink show burnt-out cars left in the streets, while verified videos recorded rounds of gunshots fired around Tehran during protests.

The internet blackout has made it extremely difficult to document the full extent of the death toll from the protests. However, US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has placed its current estimate at more than 4,000 deaths.

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News On AIR (Akashvani) – In Iran, 4,029 people were killed and more than 26,000 detained in a nationwide protest crackdown, said the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Most of the dead were demonstrators, including children, though the toll cannot be independently verified. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had his invitation to speak at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, withdrawn over the killings.

The Munich Security Conference separately withdrew its invitation for Iranian government officials over the crackdown. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei acknowledged several thousand deaths, blamed the United States, and officials warned of harsh punishments for protesters, raising fears of executions.

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