Month: April 2026

Turkiye Today – Iran says death toll in war with US, Israel has risen to 3,468

ran’s state-run Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs said Saturday that 3,468 people were killed in the war with the United States and Israel, according to comments carried by the ISNA news agency during a two-week ceasefire in the conflict that began in late February.

Ahmad Mousavi, head of the foundation, was quoted by ISNA as saying that 3,468 “martyrs… fell during the recent conflict.”

The announcement came during a ceasefire now in its second week in the war, which erupted in late February with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Tehran.

Previous Iranian and independent tolls
A previous toll issued on April 12 by the head of Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization said 3,375 people in Iran had been killed in the war.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, said on April 7 that at least 3,636 people had been killed.

According to HRANA, the dead included 1,701 civilians, among them at least 254 children, as well as 1,221 military personnel and 714 people whose status had not been classified.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) said it was not able to access strike sites or independently verify casualty tolls in Iran because of reporting restrictions.

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EA Worldview – UPDATES: US-Israel War on Iran, Day 53 — Tehran Tightens Grip on Strait of Hormuz

EA understands, from an official close to the situation, that Iranian security personnel are in Islamabad.

While this is an indication that talks are imminent, no Iranian officials are in the Pakistani capital yet.

The Iranian and Pakistani Foreign Ministers have spoken by phone.

UPDATE 1454 GMT:
In a shift of position, a “senior Iranian official” has said Tehran is “positively reviewing” involvement in talks with the US, while stressing that no final decision has been made.

UPDATE 1328 GMT:
Only one ship crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and only three on Sunday.

More than 20 vessels, including five from Iranian ports, passed throught the Strait on Sunday, the highest total during the US-Israel War.

The pre-war average was more than 120 per day.

UPDATE 0845 GMT:
The UAE is negotiating with the Trump Administration over financial support if the US-Israel War on Iran continues.

Central Bank Governor Khaled Mohamed Balama discussed the possibility of a currency-swap line with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve officials in Washington last week.

Officials say the UAE fears the war is deterring investors and undermining its status as a global financial hub. They say the Trump camp’s decision to attack Iran has drawn the Emirates into a destructive conflict whose effects may escalate.

Emirati officials added that if the UAE runs short of dollars, it may be forced to use the Chinese yuan or currencies of other countries for oil sales and transactions.

UPDATE 0830 GMT:
China has expressed concern over the “forced interception” of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship by the US.

“The situation in the Strait of Hormuz is sensitive and complicated,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said. He urged all parties to abide by the ceasefire agreement in a responsible manner, avoiding further escalation to “create the necessary conditions for normal transit through the Strait to resume”.

UPDATE 0819 GMT:
President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Iran is not committed to negotiations with the US in Pakistan on Tuesday, as “distrust of the enemy and vigilance in interactions are an undeniable necessity”.

However, he added, “War is not in anyone’s interest, and while resisting threats, every rational and diplomatic path should be used to reduce tensions.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Iran has no plans for talks since the US has violated the two-week ceasefire agreement. He said Tehran cannot forget American attacks during previous diplomatic talks.

US proposals were “unserious” and its demands “unrealistic”, the spokesman said, declaring that Tehran does not believe in ultimata.

A “senior Iranian official” said Tehran’s “defense capabilities”, including its missile program, are not open to negotiation.

They said gaps between the two sides over Iran’s nuclear program have not narrowed.

UPDATE 0747 GMT:
On Saturday, before the US intercepted and boarded an Iranian cargo ship, passage through the Strait of Hormuz was at its highest level since the US-Israel War began on February 28.

More than 20 vessels crossed the Strait. Five of them, including three liquified petroleum gas tankers, loaded products from Iranian ports. The shipments included oil products and metals.

UPDATE 0630 GMT:
Iran has continued its executions of detainees on the pretext that they are working with Israel’s Mossad intelligence service to plan attacks inside the country.

Mohammad Masoum Shahi and Hamed Validi were hanged this morning. They were charged with “enmity against God” and cooperation with hostile groups.

UPDATE, APRIL 20:
Oil prices have risen amid tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and uncertainty over a second set of US-Iran talks in Islamabad.

In early trading on Monday, Brent crude surged 5.8% to $95.64 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate rose 6.4% to $87.90.

UPDATE 2242 GMT:
Tehran’s joint military command Khatam al-Anbiya says the US violated a ceasefire by firing at the Iranian-flagged cargo ship Touska, sailing from China to Iran, in the Gulf of Oman.

A spokesman said, We warn that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy by the US military.”

The US military confirmed that the destroyer USS Spruance fired “several rounds” as it intercepted the Touska. Marines then boarded the vessel.

UPDATE 2044 GMT:
A French ship has been damaged by an attack in the Strait of Hormuz.

The shipping company CMA-CGM said the vessel “was the subject of warning shots yesterday”. Its “crew is safe and sound”.

UPDATE 2037 GMT:
The UK military has escalated its threat assessment for the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf to Critical, the highest possible risk level.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, citing a “high level of activity by naval forces in the region”, said the current environment creates a severe “risk of attack or miscalculation” for all commercial shipping.

UPDATE 2024 GMT:
Donald Trump says a US destroyer intercepted an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, which was then boarded by Marines, in the Gulf of Oman.

Trump said the USS Spruance enforced the American blockade on Iranian ports by firing on and seizing the US-sanctioned Touska, “nearly 900 feet long and weighing almost as much as an aircraft carrier”.

UPDATE 1729 GMT:
The White House has reversed yet again, saying that Vice President J.D. Vance is heading the US delegation to Islamabad for the second set of talks with Iran.

But Iranian State media say Tehran has rejected the discussions, citing “Washington’s excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade, which it considers a breach of the ceasefire”.

UPDATE 1359 GMT:
Donald Trump now says that Vice President J.D. Vance will not lead the US delegation in the second set of talks with Iran.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright had said (see 1311 GMT) that Vance was going to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Monday night.

Trump claimed the Secret Service could not accompany Vance: “It’s only because of security. JD’s great.”

UPDATE 1311 GMT:
Donald Trump says US representatives will travel to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Monday night for the second set of talks with Iran.

Vice President J.D. Vance will again lead the American delegation, said Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Trump said real estate developer Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner will also return to the talks.

UPDATE 1308 GMT:
Iranian media say two tankers were turned around by Iran’s military as they tried to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

The vessels, sailing under the flags of Botswana and Angola, were forced to change course after “unauthorised transit” through the waterway.

UPDATE 0859 GMT:
Knocking back Donald Trump’s tweets, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh says:

I can tell you that no enriched material is going to be shipped to United States. This is a non-starter, and I can assure you that while we are ready to address any concerns that we do have, we’re not going to accept things that are non-starters.

Khatibzadeh rejected a second set of talks with the US, saying it was maintaining “excessive” demands: “We are still not there yet to move on to an actual meeting because there are issues that the Americans have not yet abandoned their maximalist position.”

President Masoud Pezeshkian chided, “Trump says Iran cannot make use of its nuclear rights but doesn’t say for what crime. Who is he to deprive a nation of its rights?”

UPDATE 0744 GMT:
Speaking with the Wall Street Journal, US officials depict a rattled, chaotic Donald Trump.

It was Good Friday afternoon in a nearly empty West Wing soon after the president learned that an American jet had been shot down in Iran, with two airmen missing. Trump screamed at aides for hours. The Europeans aren’t helping, he said repeatedly. Gas prices averaged $4.09. Images of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis — one of the biggest international policy failures of a presidency in recent times — had been looming large in his mind.

Trump demanded that the military immediately rescue the two airmen of the downed F-15E jet fighter, but the officials needed to establish how to carry out the difficult mission in the mountains of southwest Iran.

A “senior administration official” said aides kept Trump out of the room as they received minute-by-minute updates “because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful”.

UPDATE 0708 GMT:
Iran Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has emphasized, “It is impossible for others to pass through the Strait of Hormuz while we cannot. If US does not abandon this blockade, transit through Strait of Hormuz will certainly be restricted.”

He said he forced Donald Trump’s representatives to pull back a US warship in the Strait.

We dealt decisively with a US attempt at minesweeping, viewing it as a ceasefire violation. I told the US delegation in Islamabad that if their minesweeper moved an inch further, we would fire. They requested 15 minutes to order a withdrawal, and they complied.

UPDATE 0607 GMT:
An Israeli reservist was killed and nine others wounded by an explosive device in southern Lebanon on Saturday.

During battalion operations, an engineering vehicle drove over a bomb that had been planted by Hezbollah, said the Israel Defense Forces.

One soldier was seriously wounded.

After the blast, the IDF struck several targets in the area.

UPDATE 0604 GMT:
UN Secretary General António Guterres has condemned Friday’s attack on peacekeepers in Lebanon which killed a French soldier and injured three others.

I strongly condemn Saturday’s attack on @UNIFIL_ during which one French peacekeeper was killed & another three were injured.

I extend my deepest condolences to the family, friends & colleagues of the fallen peacekeeper, and wish a full & fast recovery to the injured…

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 18, 2026

UPDATE 0557 GMT:
Israeli forces are demolishing homes in Bint Jbeil and other border towns in southern Lebanon, reports Lebanese state media.

Bint Jbeil is about 5 km (3.1 miles) north of the Israeli border, There was heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in the town before a 10-day ceasefire took effect at midnight on Thursday.

UPDATE 0553 GMT:
Commenting on talks with the US, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Saturday that gaps remain over nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz.

“We have had progress but there is still a big distance between us,” he told State media. “There are some issues on which we insist….They also have red lines. But these issues could be just one or two.”

He added, “We are still far from the final discussion.”

UPDATE 0548 GMT:
At least 3,468 people in Iran have been killed by the US-Israel War, says the State-run Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said on April 7 that at least 3,636 people had been slain, including 1,701 civilians. Among them were at least 254 children.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Iran has tightened its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, restricting the transit of all shipping until the US lifts a blockade on Iranian ports.
Amid a two-week temporary ceasefire in the US-Israel War, Tehran said on Friday that it would allow passage to commercial vessels, provided they used predetermined routes and obtained permission from the Revolutionary Guards’ Navy.

But on Saturday, politicians, officials, and commanders said the arrangements are withdrawn because of the blockade imposed by the Trump camp last week.

Around 25% of the world’s maritime oil traffic and 20% of maritime gas pass through waterway between Iran and the Gulf States. The Strait is just over 30 km (18.6) miles at its narrowest point.

On Saturday, two Guards gunboats fired on a tanker. 20 nautical miles northeast of Oman. At least two merchant vessels were hit by gunfire.

Earlier, a convoy including four liquefied petroleum gas ⁠carriers and several oil ⁠product and chemical tankers tried to pass through the waterway. There is still no word whether it was successful.

Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf jabbed at Donald Trump’s declaration that the Strait had been completely freed by Iran: “The President of the United States made seven claims in one hour, all seven of which were false. They did not win the war with these lies, and they will certainly not get anywhere in negotiations either.”

He reiterated the conditions on passage: “Whether the Strait is open or closed and the regulations governing it will be determined by the field, not by social media.”

Later in the day, the Supreme National Security Council confirmed restrictions on passage “until the end of the war is definitively concluded”. As long as the US blockades Iranian ports, this is “a breach of the ceasefire [which] will prevent the conditional and limited reopening of the Strait of Hormuz”.

Iran’s military declared, “This strategic waterway is under the strict management and control of the armed forces.”

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A letter initiated by Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari, calls on the U.S. Department of Defense to provide immediate answers and ensure transparency and accountability regarding widespread civilian casualties and damage to critical infrastructure during recent military operations in Iran.

The letter draws on documentation from HRA, including reports of at least 1,701 civilian deaths and damage to essential facilities such as schools, hospitals, other critical infrastructure. It raises serious concerns about potential violations of core principles of the law of armed conflict.

Within this context, Members of Congress pose a series of specific questions to the Department of Defense, including how civilian harm is assessed and mitigated, what mechanisms exist for recording and reporting casualties, how incidents such as the attack on a Lamerd Sports Hall are reviewed, and what accountability measures and amends mechanisms are in place for victims.

HRA contributed to the development of this letter by providing documentation and analysis grounded in the law of armed conflict, civilian harm mitigation frameworks, and contextual expertise on Iran.

The full text of this letter follows:

Dear Secretary Hegseth,

We write with urgent concern following U.S. military actions between February 28, 2026, and April 7, 2026, which, according to independent monitoring by Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA), have resulted in significant harm to civilian life and damage to civilian infrastructure, namely the deaths of at least 1,701 civilians, including at least 254 children. There are at least 700 additional reported deaths under review.

On February 28, 2026, the opening day of hostilities, U.S. strikes hit both a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, killing a reported 168 children and injuring 100 others, and a youth sports hall in Lamerd, killing 21 civilians, including 3 children, and injuring 110 others. Independent experts and monitoring groups have attributed both attacks to U.S. forces. The fact that these high-casualty incidents, involving clearly identifiable civilian objects, occurred on the first day of a campaign preceded by weeks, if not months, of intelligence gathering and target planning, raises serious concerns about U.S. targeting and precautionary measures and compliance with fundamental principles of the law of armed conflict. Minab marked the largest civilian death toll of any single U.S. attack since the Gulf War in 1991. Between February 28 and March 20, 2026, independent monitoring identified at least 12 incidents in which upwards of ten civilians were reportedly killed in a single strike. Given the limitations in the information environment, this figure is likely a significant undercount.

HRA has documented military strikes and impact damage on hospitals, emergency medical facilities, primary schools, universities, water desalination plants, power plants, civilian airports, places of worship, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and countless densely populated residential areas. Several incidents investigated by HRA affecting schools resulted in the death or injury of students. In an incident on March 5, 2026, in Tehran, a nearby attack injured 56 people while they waited in line for bread. Another attack in Eastern Tehran on March 9, 2026, killed at least 20 civilians, including a child, as two twenty-unit residential apartment buildings collapsed from a missile strike.

Furthermore, attacks on power stations disrupt services essential to the survival of the civilian population, as hospitals, water treatment facilities, and the food supply chain rely on electricity. Electricity failure will trigger cascading humanitarian consequences, including public health crises, outbreaks of infectious disease, the denial of care to the wounded and sick, and food insecurity. Iran has limited capacity to repair damaged infrastructure, meaning that disruptions to essential services are likely to persist for months, if not years. Such protracted damage deepens the reverberating effects on civilian life and will undermine pathways to recovery. The impact is exacerbated by the highly restrictive operating environment for humanitarian organizations, which severely limits their presence and ability to respond at scale.

These events, in addition to a series of wildly outrageous and threatening statements by President Trump and echoed across the administration, raise serious concerns about violations of domestic and international law. Human rights organizations and legal experts have underscored that threats that “a whole civilization will die,” or calls for indiscriminate destruction, are unlawful because they disregard the fundamental principle of distinction between civilian and military targets and signal an intent wholly incompatible with the protection of civilian life. Notably, more than 200 leading human rights, humanitarian, civil liberties, faith-based, and environmental organizations and experts have issued a joint urgent statement in response to President Trump’s threatening rhetoric.

The prohibition of such conduct is not new. President Abraham Lincoln commissioned the drafting of the Lieber Code in 1863 as one of the first modern codifications of the laws of war. It sought to regulate the conduct of U.S. forces, prohibiting wanton destruction and protecting civilian populations, grounded in the principle that even in war, military necessity must be balanced with humanity. The Trump administration’s recent statements and actions not only undermine such law, but depart from longstanding U.S. military doctrine and values that have, since the Lieber Code, affirmed the protection of civilians as a core principle in warfare.

The administration’s lethal threats and conduct carry a significant risk for U.S. servicemembers of complicity in potential war crimes, as well as moral and psychological injury associated with causing civilian harm. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has identified exposure to morally injurious events as a risk factor for suicide, and an average of more than 17 veterans die by suicide each day. The U.S. Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP) specifically recognizes that battlefield “successes may ultimately end in strategic failure if care is not taken to protect the civilian environment.” Related resources have been severely defunded and deprioritized in the current administration, eroding the support and oversight capacity for civilian harm mitigation throughout Operation Epic Fury, meant to protect both civilians and U.S. military personnel.

The administration’s threats and actions have moreover damaged our credibility and standing globally, undermining the moral clarity it has historically sought to project. The military assault unleashed and threatened against the Iranian civilian population has already sown the seeds of resentment and further radicalization, counter to US strategic priorities.

In light of these developments, and statements by President Trump and the administration indicating the potential for widespread or total destruction, and consistent with Congress’s oversight responsibilities, we request immediate clarification on the following:

1. What military and legal assessments were conducted within the Department of Defense regarding civilian harm mitigation and reduction, including damage to critical infrastructure such as energy, water, and medical systems?
2. What measures were taken by your department to ensure compliance with the laws of armed conflict, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution?
3. What mechanisms are in place to track, assess, and publicly report civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure resulting from U.S. strikes in Iran?
4. How does the Department reconcile public claims that it does not target civilians or civilian infrastructure with emerging reports suggesting otherwise?
5. How does the Department reconcile the credible reports regarding the incident in Lamerd on February 28, where multiple weapons experts, including former US military personnel, have identified a U.S. Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) as responsible for the strike?
6. How does the Department plan to take accountability, including through amends for victims,  for the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure resulting from its operations, particularly in light of credible reports of extensive damage to residential homes and the loss of civilian life?

I request a response no later than May 2, 2026.

Sincerely,

Yassamin Ansari

Member of Congress

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RFERL – Iran Sentences Four More To Death Over Mass Protests, Rights Groups Say

Iran has sentenced four more protesters, including a woman, to death over mass demonstrations in January that posed one of the biggest threats to the country’s clerical rulers in years, according to two human rights groups.

The authorities have so far executed seven people in connection with the protests, which were crushed in an unprecedented government crackdown that left thousands of people dead, rights groups said. Tens of thousands of others were detained or summoned for questioning.

Human rights defenders have repeatedly accused Iran of using the death penalty to instill fear in society in the wake of a wave of anti-government protests in recent years.

Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court convicted the four protesters of carrying out acts on behalf of the United States and “hostile groups,” the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, a British-based organization that promotes human rights in Iran, said in separate statements.

It was not immediately clear when the verdict was issued.

The four were accused of taking part in the antiestablishment demonstrations in the capital Tehran in January, chanting protest slogans, throwing objects at security forces, damaging public property, and injuring a member of the paramilitary Basij force.

They were identified as Mohammadreza Majidi-Asl and his wife Bita Hemmati. The others were Behrouz Zamaninejad and Kourosh Zamaninejad, two men who lived in the same apartment building as the couple.

First Female Protester Sentenced To Death

Hemmati is believed to be the first woman to be sentenced to death over the demonstrations that erupted on December 28, 2025, and continued for weeks.

Amir Hemmati, a fifth person and a relative of the married couple, was sentenced to five years in prison on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security,” as well as eight months in jail for “propaganda against the regime.”

“The ruling contains vague accusations against the protesters, which do not meet the ‘most serious crimes’ threshold for capital punishment, interpreted as intentional killing,” the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said in its statement on April 14.

“The ruling failed to provide detailed evidence of each defendant’s role or to attribute specific acts to individual defendants,” the statement added.

HRANA said in an April 13 statement that “reports concerning possible coerced confessions are among the issues that, according to legal experts, may raise serious questions about the judicial process.”

“No information has been released regarding the defendants’ access to counsel of their choosing, the details of the court sessions, or their conditions of detention,” it added.

At least 1,639 people were executed in 2025, including 48 women, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), one of the highest rates in the world.

Apart from the seven people executed so far this year over the protests, another 26 others have been sentenced to death, according to IHR.

“Whenever public protests occur, individuals who participated are often under various forms of pressure, torture, and abuse, forced to confess to certain actions,” Naeimeh Doostdar, an Iranian journalist and human rights advocate based in Sweden, told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.

Doostdar said the aim of the death sentences is to intimidate Iranians.

“If citizens come to believe that even chanting slogans, throwing stones, or similar actions could ultimately result in severe punishments like the death penalty, then — according to the authorities’ perspective — they will likely become more fearful and refrain from participating in future protests,” she said.

In Iran, different crimes are judged by different courts. Rape and murder cases are handled by the criminal courts, while revolutionary courts are responsible for issuing severe sentences to those found to have criticized the authorities.

Responsible for most of the death sentences issued in recent years, the revolutionary courts are not transparent, rights defenders say, and judges are known for the extraordinary abuse of their legal powers, denying lawyers access to convicted individuals, and allowing exhausting interrogations using torture to coerce suspects to confess to crimes.

 

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CBS – Woman among 4 more Iranians sentenced to death over protests, rights groups say

Iranian authorities have sentenced to death four more people, including a woman, over last January’s protests, several rights groups said on Tuesday.

Iran has already hanged seven people in connection with the protests, which activists say were put down in a crackdown that killed thousands and led to tens of thousands of arrests.

Rights groups accuse the Islamic Republic of using the death penalty as a tool of repression to instill fear in society, and fear it will ramp up capital punishment in the wake of the war against Israel and the United States.

The four were sentenced to death by a Tehran Revolutionary Court presided over by the notorious judge Imam Afshari after being convicted of carrying out actions on behalf of the United States, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said in separate statements.

The regime’s judiciary accused the group of numerous charges, including “using explosives and weapons,” “harming stationed forces on-site,” and “throwing objects including bottles, concrete blocks, and incendiary materials from the roofs of buildings,” according to the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran.

It was not immediately clear when the verdict was issued.

The four convicted were named as Mohammadreza Majidi-Asl and his wife Bita Hemmati, along with two other men, Behrouz Zamaninejad and Kourosh Zamaninejad, who lived in the same Tehran building as the married couple.

Hemmati is believed to be the first woman to be sentenced to death over the protests.

The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said it also believed that Hemmati was the woman who appeared in a video broadcast on state television in January being personally interrogated by judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei.

“The recording and broadcasting of forced confessions from defendants in an opaque process … constitutes a blatant violation of the defendant’s rights,” it said.

According to Iran Human Rights Monitor, Iran has carried out 656 executions in the first three months of this year but the actual tally is “likely far higher” since Iran was largely offline in March when only eight were recorded.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty said on Monday in their joint annual report on the death penalty in Iran that at least 1,639 people were executed in 2025 — including 48 women.

As well as the seven already executed, death sentences have been issued against at least 26 other people arrested over the January protests and several hundred more are facing charges that could see them executed, Iran Human Rights warned.

Last month, Iran executed three men who were accused of killing police officers during the protests, including Saleh Mohammadi, a young member of Iran’s national wrestling team.

“Dozens of individuals arrested during the January 2026 protests have been sentenced to death following grossly unfair, fast-tracked trials conducted without due process, access to independent counsel and reliance on torture-tainted forced ‘confessions’ as evidence,” said the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran called on the United Nations “to take immediate action to save the lives of prisoners sentenced to death, especially political prisoners and those detained during the uprising.”

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The Jerusalem Post – Iran to execute first woman prisoner linked to January protests as regime executions surge

Iranian authorities are preparing to execute Bita Hemmati, the first woman sentenced to death in connection with the mass protests in Tehran in late December and January, according to the US-based non-profit the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Judge Iman Afshari, of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, sentenced Hemmati, her husband, Mohammadreza Majidi Asl, and Behrouz Zamaninezhad, and Kourosh Zamaninezhad to death on the charge of “operational action for the hostile government of the United States and hostile groups,” in addition to discretionary imprisonment period of five years on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security.”

A fifth defendant, Amir Hemmati, was sentenced to five years of discretionary imprisonment on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security,” and eight months in prison for “propaganda against the regime,” according to HRANA.

The four sentenced to death were arrested while demonstrating in Tehran and subjected to torture before their sentencing, according to a press release by the National Council of Resistance of Iran. HRANA also purported to have received evidence that the defendants were forced to confess.

The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center released a statement stating it believed Hemmati was the woman who was interrogated by judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i on state television in January.

“The recording and broadcasting of forced confessions from defendants in an opaque process … constitutes a blatant violation of the defendant’s rights,” it said.

The charges listed by the Iranian regime’s judiciary included allegedly “using explosives and weapons, harming stationed forces on-site, throwing objects including bottles, concrete blocks, and incendiary materials from the roofs of buildings, destroying public property, participating in protest gatherings, and chanting protest slogans.” However, HRANA claimed to have obtained a copy of the verdict, which failed to detail how the defendants were involved in the allegations.

Authorities also accused them of acting in line with disrupting national security and in connection with “hostile groups,” as well as sending content with the aim of undermining security.

No execution date has been announced for the four prisoners.

The planned executions come amid a broader increase in capital punishment in Iran. According to a report by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (EPCM), the regime carried out at least 1,639 executions over the past year.

Death sentences have been issued against at least 26 other people arrested over the January protests, and at least seven have already been killed.

 

 

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MSN – Iran’s true casualty figures unknown as internet blackout hampers monitors

Iran has not updated its official death toll figures for weeks, while human rights groups outside the country are struggling with chronic communication problems, meaning the number of people killed during the war remains largely unknown.

The last time Iran’s health ministry gave a full update about casualties was on March 8, the ninth day of the conflict, when it said around 1,200 civilians had been killed in US and Israeli airstrikes across the country.

Overseas human rights groups have long been considered one of the most reliable sources of information about life inside the heavily censored country.

But with Iran’s connections to the global internet cut off and phone lines down, they are struggling to reach their networks of contacts who are their eyes and ears on the ground.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which played an important role corroborating deaths during anti-government protests in January, estimates the civilian death toll at 1,407 people, including 214 children.

“I would say it’s an absolute, absolute minimum, and that’s simply because we don’t have the capacity to be everywhere at one time, understanding the full extent of what’s happening,” HRANA deputy director Skylar Thompson told AFP.

“With the scale and the speed at which places are being targeted across the country, it’s impossible to document it at the same pace,” she added.

The Iranian Red Crescent is not providing casualty estimates, but its latest figures indicate 61,555 homes, 19,000 businesses, 275 medical centers, and nearly 500 schools have been damaged.

AFP journalists have been able to confirm that many civilian buildings in Tehran have been damaged, including apartment blocks caught in the blast wave of nearby missile or bomb strikes, but not beyond the city.

Reporters are unable to travel around the country without official authorization.

– Connection problems –

Distrust of Iran’s official figures is high among human rights groups, particularly after the bloody crackdown on anti-government protests in January.

Although Iran acknowledged around 3,000 deaths, mostly among security forces, researchers and campaigners outside Iran estimated that anywhere from 7,000 to 35,000 people were killed in the indiscriminate shooting.

“The Islamic republic has a history of not publishing or not collecting data,” Awyar Shekhi from the Norway-based human rights group Hengaw told AFP.

The problem for Hengaw and others seeking to provide a credible alternative to the incomplete official data has been the almost-total shutdown of Iran’s internet connections to the outside world since the start of the war on February 28.

“The connection is worse than it ever was before, so it’s really difficult to get accurate data of how many people have been killed, and the information we get is so little,” Shekhi added.

Both she and Thompson stressed that Iranian authorities have been threatening and arresting people who have illegally accessed the global internet to send information abroad, sometimes accusing them of spying.

Making telephone calls to Iran from abroad is also largely impossible.

– ‘Focus on the civilian harm’ –

The biggest loss of life for civilians in the war so far was the airstrike on an elementary school in Minab on the first day of the war that killed at least 165 people, according to an official toll.

A US Tomahawk cruise missile hit the school because of a targeting mistake, according to the preliminary findings of a US military investigation reported by The New York Times.

Hengaw also documented an airstrike on a flour factory in the city of western Naqadeh on March 7 that killed 11 workers and injured another 21.

“I believe that the US and Israel are using a quite aggressive interpretation of what is a military target,” Thompson from HRANA added.

Unlike in January, during the anti-government protests, she said there had so far been relatively little attention in the Western media on the toll of ordinary Iranians.

“There’s such a focus on the geopolitics of it all, I think it’s really important to have a focus on the civilian harm,” she added.

Elsewhere in the region, Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes had killed 1,029 people in the country.

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UCC – Easter Persists

Do you feel it too? The heaviness of these days. The weight of so many seemingly intractable challenges in our nation and world. The weariness of facing the daily barrage of bad news and dispiriting circumstances.

We awoke to news on Sunday morning that peace talks between U.S. and Iranian officials in Pakistan had failed to bring any meaningful agreements. Meanwhile, the Human Rights Activists News Agency reported the mounting human toll of this war.

1,701 civilians dead in Iran, including 254 children. 1,953 people killed in Lebanon and fully 1/5 of Lebanon’s entire population displaced. 20 people killed in Israel, 32 killed in other Gulf nations. 13 American service members dead and thousands more whose loved ones worry for their safety. A humanitarian crisis throughout the Middle East that is widening every day. And economic pressures here in the United States that continue to deepen.

On Monday morning President Trump posted an AI image on X that was yet another frightening indicator of this dire moment. It depicted him clothed in white robes, apparently bestowing healing on a prone man , a beam of light in his hand and an American flag at his back. White faces look up at him in adoration, and military planes fly overhead. It was white Christian nationalism on full display, a revolting attempt to characterize this President as some kind of Christ-like, salvific figure. The pure definition of blasphemy.

All of this while Eastertide lingers, inviting us to trust that God can wrestle new life from the very worst day, can carve the possible out of what seems utterly impossible. It’s hard to hold onto these Easter promises, though, when this is the current state of things. It can feel instead like we’re stuck in the cruelty and violence of Good Friday, gripped by the overwhelming uncertainty and grief that Jesus’ followers experienced on that Holy Saturday.

And yet. Easter did come. Christ rose. Death was vanquished. The love and goodness and presence of God could not be snuffed out by all the madness of the world or the corrupt powers of the day. Then —and now— new life beckons. Hope persists. Easter cannot be shut out or shut down. We believe.

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New York Post – Executions in Iran doubled in 2025 — marking a 36-year high: report

The Iranian regime executed more than 1,600 people last year — marking a three decade high not seen since the end of the Islamic Republic’s war against Iraq in 1989.

The shocking figures were included in a joint report released by the nonprofit Iran Human Rights and Together Against the Death Penalty, which estimated that in 2025 at least four people were put to death each day in Iran.

In total, at least 1,639 were executed in Iran last year, the highest reported number since the post-war bloodbath in 1989, where an estimated 1,700 political prisoners were executed, according to the report.

It’s not clear how many of the executions were done publicly.

Most of last year’s prisoners were hanged for drug-related offenses or murder at ostensibly higher rates compared to 2024. Drug-related convictions resulting in death saw a 58% increase, while murder convictions — which almost always leads to execution — jumped a staggering 79%, according to the report.

At least 57 others, including two protesters, were given the death penalty for intangible charges like “waging war against God” and “corruption on Earth,” according to the report.

At least 48 women were also killed, setting another 20-year record, according to the report.

A bulk of the death sentences were handed down by the Revolutionary Courts “after grossly unfair trials and without due process,” the report said.

The nonprofits noted that those in marginalized groups, including ethnic and religious minorities, were “disproportionately represented among those executed.”

The report does not account for the slew of executions that have been ordered since January’s nationwide revolt and the start of the war with Israel and the US.

State media has already confirmed at least 14 executions by the brutal regime this year, though the Norwegian-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported evidence of as many as 160 hangings since January.

Seven of the known hangings linked to protest activity took place after Operation Epic Fury launched in late February. Six other victims were convicted of membership with the exiled opposition group Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), and one was accused of spying for Israel, the report said.

Separately, upwards of 7,000 protestors were slaughtered in the streets during the height of the winter revolution, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, though thousands more are still under investigation

Just last week, Iran’s hardline chief justice demanded all death penalty cases of “agents and affiliates of the enemy” — which includes protesters — be expedited.

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straits Times – Woman among four more Iranians sentenced to death over protests: NGOs

The Iranian authorities have sentenced to death four more people, including a woman, over protests in January, several rights groups said on April 14.

Iran has already hanged seven people in connection with the protests, which activists say were quelled in a crackdown that left thousands dead and tens of thousands arrested.

Rights groups accuse the Islamic republic of using the death penalty as a tool of repression to instil fear in society, and fear it will ramp up capital punishment in the wake of the war against Israel and the United States.

The four were sentenced to death by a Tehran Revolutionary Court presided over by the notorious Judge Iman Afshari after being convicted of carrying out actions on behalf of the US, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency and Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said in separate statements.

They had been accused of throwing concrete blocks at security forces in the capital from a residential building. It was not immediately clear when the verdict was issued.

The four convicted were Mohammadreza Majidi-Asl and his wife Bita Hemmati, as well as Behrouz Zamaninejad and Kourosh Zamaninejad, who lived in the same Tehran building as the married couple.

Hemmati is believed to be the first woman to be sentenced to death over the protests.

The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said it also believed that Hemmati was the woman being personally interrogated by Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei in a video broadcast on state television in January.

“The recording and broadcasting of forced confessions from defendants in an opaque process… constitutes a blatant violation of the defendant’s rights,” the center added.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty said on April 13 in their joint annual report on the death penalty in Iran that at least 1,639 people have been executed in 2025 – including 48 women.

In addition to the seven people who were executed, death sentences have been issued against at least 26 other people arrested over the January protests and several hundred more are facing charges that could see them executed, IHR warned.

The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran said: “Dozens of individuals arrested during the January 2026 protests have been sentenced to death following grossly unfair, fast-tracked trials conducted without due process (and) access to independent counsel, and reliance on torture-tainted forced ‘confessions’ as evidence.”

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