Dubai: A US-based activist agency said Sunday that it has verified at least 3,766 deaths during a wave of protests that swept Iran and led to a bloody crackdown, and fears the number could be significantly higher.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency posted the revised figure, increasing its previous toll of 3,308. 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.
The agency has been accurate throughout the years of demonstrations in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities. The Associated Press has been unable to independently confirm the toll.
Iranian officials have not given a clear death toll, although Saturday, the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the protests had left several thousand people dead and blamed the United States for the deaths. It was the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualties from the wave of protests that began December 28 over Iran’s ailing economy. The Human Rights Activists News Agency says 24,348 protesters have been arrested in the crackdown.
Iranian officials have repeatedly accused the United States and Israel of fomenting unrest in the country.
Tension with the United States has been high, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatening Tehran with military action if his administration found the Islamic Republic was using deadly force against anti-government protesters.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a post Sunday on X, blamed longstanding enmity and inhumane sanctions imposed by the US and its allies for any hardships the Iranian people might be facing. Any aggression against the Supreme Leader of our country is tantamount to all-out war against the Iranian nation, he wrote.
During the protests, Trump had told demonstrators that help is on the way and that his administration would act accordingly if the killing of demonstrators continued or if Iranian authorities executed detained protesters.
But he later struck a conciliatory tone, saying that Iranian officials had cancelled the hanging of over 800 people and that I greatly respect the fact that they cancelled.
Saturday, Khamenei branded Trump a criminal for supporting the rallies and blamed the US for the casualties, describing the protesters as foot soldiers of the United States.
Trump, in an interview with Politico Saturday, called for an end to Khamenei’s nearly 40-year reign, calling him as a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people.
No protests have been reported for days in Iran, where the streets have returned to an uneasy calm. Instead, some Iranians chanted anti-Khamenei slogans from the windows of their homes Saturday night, the chants reverberating around neighbourhoods in Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan, witnesses said.
Authorities have also blocked access to the internet since January 8. Saturday, very limited internet services functioned again briefly. Access to some online services such as Google began working again Sunday, although users said they could access only domestic websites, and email services continued to be blocked.
