More than 2,000 people have been killed in security forces’ violent crackdown on protests in Iran, a human rights group said, as President Trump promised the Iranians that help was “on the way.”
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that it has so far confirmed the killing of 1,850 protesters, 135 people affiliated with the government and nine uninvolved civilians as well as nine children over the past 17 days, despite an internet shutdown.
An Iranian official also told Reuters that 2,000 people had been killed but that “terrorists” were responsible.
Trump said Iranian authorities would “pay a heavy price” for the killings and urged people to “keep protesting.”
He has been weighing military and other options in response to the crackdown, having already announced 25% tariffs on any country trading with Iran.
The protests, which reportedly spread to 180 towns and villages across 31 provinces, were sparked by anger over Iran’s collapsing currency and soaring costs of living.
They quickly expanded to demands for political change and became one of the most serious challenges to the religious establishment since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The protests intensified significantly last Thursday and were met with deadly force by authorities, masked by a near-total shutdown of internet and communications services.
HRANA said Tuesday afternoon that in addition to confirming the killing of at least 2,003 people during the unrest, it was also reviewing reports of 779 other deaths.
“We’re horrified, but we still think that number is conservative,” Deputy Director Skylar Thompson told the Associated Press.
Another group, Iran Human Rights (IHR), based in Norway, said it had confirmed the deaths of at least 734 protesters.
Its director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, told the AFP news agency that the figures were “based on information received from less than half of the country’s provinces and less than 10% of Iranian hospitals”, adding: “The actual number of people killed is probably in the thousands.”
Reuters said the unnamed Iranian official who put the death toll at around 2,000 did not give details of that figure. However, he added, “terrorists” were behind the deaths of protesters and security personnel.
It is difficult to assess the true scale of the bloodshed because, like other international news outlets, the BBC is unable to report from within the country.
However, videos posted online on Sunday showed people searching for the bodies of their loved ones at the Kahrizak forensic center in Tehran. The BBC counted at least 180 shrouded bodies and body bags in the footage.
Around 50 bodies were visible in another video from the facility shared on Monday.
“My friend went there [Kahrizak] looking for his brother, and he forgot his own grief,” an activist told the Persian BBC on Monday.
“They piled up bodies from all the neighborhoods, like Saadatabad, Naziabad, Sattarkhan. So you go to your pile of addresses and you look there. You don’t know a fraction of the level of violence that was used.”
Hospitals in the capital were also reportedly overwhelmed by the number of injured.
Professor Shahram Kordasti, an Iranian oncologist based in London, told the BBC’s Newsday program on Tuesday that the last message he received from a colleague in Tehran read: “In most hospitals it’s like a war zone. We’re running out of supplies, running out of blood.”
Other doctors from “two to three hospitals” also reported treating hundreds of injured or dead people, he added.
An Iranian living in Rasht, near the Caspian Sea coast, described the town as unrecognizable. “Everywhere is burned by fire,” they said.
Shortly after HRANA released its latest review, President Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Iranian Patriots, CONTINUE TO PROTECT – TAKE BACK CONTROL OF YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Record the names of the killers and attackers. They will pay a heavy price. »
“I have canceled all meetings with Iranian officials until the senseless killings of protesters stop. Help is on the way. MIGA!!!,” he added, using the acronym of a slogan of the US-based Iranian opposition, “Make Iran Great Again.”
Trump’s national security team was scheduled to hold a meeting at the White House on Tuesday to discuss options for Iran.
On Monday evening, US defense officials told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that Trump had been briefed on a wide range of covert and military tools, including long-range missile strikes, cyber operations and psychological campaign responses.
At the same time, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera that Iran was ready to use diplomacy but also other options, including “if the United States wanted to test the military option that it had tested in the past.” In June, the United States carried out airstrikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities during a 12-day war between Iran and Israel.
Araghchi also said the Iranian government had engaged in dialogue with protesters, but was forced to act after “trained terrorist groups” from abroad infiltrated the protests and targeted security forces.
His comments echo those of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who told his supporters at state-organized rallies across the country on Monday that they had “neutralized the plans of foreign enemies that were supposed to be carried out by domestic mercenaries.”
Also on Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest in response to what she called “the horrific and brutal killing of Iranian protesters.”
UN human rights chief Volker Türk has urged Iranian authorities to immediately end all forms of violence and repression against peaceful protesters, his office said.
He added that calling protesters “terrorists” to justify violence was unacceptable and that it was “extremely worrying” to see statements from Iranian officials indicating the possibility of the death penalty being used against protesters in fast-track trials.
The head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, said on Monday that those involved in the unrest would be “treated seriously and severely”. And prosecutors said some would be charged with “enmity against God,” a national security offense punishable by death.
More than 16,780 protesters were arrested during the unrest, according to HRANA.
A 26-year-old man arrested last Thursday has already been sentenced to death, according to his family and the Kurdish human rights association Hengaw, based in Norway.
A relative of Erfan Soltani’s family told the Persian BBC that “in an extremely fast process, in just two days, the court handed down a death sentence and the family was informed that he was going to be executed.” [this] Wednesday”.
“We have never seen a case move so quickly,” Awyar Shekhi from Hengaw told the BBC. “The government is using every tactic it knows to repress the population and sow fear.”
Speaking later Tuesday to CBS, the BBC’s U.S. news partner, Trump said the United States would take “very strong action” if Iranian authorities began hanging protesters.
“If they hang them, you will see certain things… We will take very strong action if they do such a thing,” he said.
Türk also demanded that Iranian authorities restore full access to the Internet and other communications services.
Some international calls from Iran were transmitted on Tuesday, but the internet outage has now exceeded 120 hours, according to monitor NetBlocks.
A person living near Tehran with access via the Starlink satellite service told BBC Persian that there were “checkpoints on every block”, where cars and their occupants’ phones were inspected by security forces.
New videos of protests from recent days have also emerged, with the Persian BBC verifying those filmed in the central city of Arak and the western cities of Tabriz, Urmia and Khorramabad.
In the images of Khorramabad, gunshots can be heard during clashes between security forces and protesters, some of whom throw stones.
Protesters chant the slogans “Death to the dictator” – a reference to Ayatollah Khamenei – and “Reza Shah, may your soul rest in peace” – in reference to the late monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in the 1979 revolution and whose son Reza lives in exile.