Iranian Group Estimates 36,500 Killed by Regime

Iranian security forces reportedly killed more than 36,500 protesters during a crackdown on demonstrations earlier this month.

That staggering figure, detailed in an investigation by Iran International, would make the Jan. 8–9 assault on civilians the deadliest two-day protest crackdown in recorded history.

According to classified documents, medical reports, eyewitness testimony, and accounts from victims' families reviewed by Iran International's Editorial Board, the killings spanned more than 400 cities and towns across the Islamic Republic.

The scale of the violence dwarfs the regime's public claims.

While hardline officials loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have acknowledged just over 3,000 deaths, internal reports from Iran's security and health institutions reportedly place the toll well above 30,000, with the most recent intelligence assessments exceeding 36,500.

Iran International reported that many of the killings amounted to extrajudicial executions.

Doctors and nurses described security forces entering hospitals and shooting wounded protesters in the head while they were receiving medical treatment.

Disturbing images from morgues show victims still attached to medical tubes and heart-monitoring equipment, strongly suggesting they were alive and under care before being executed.

Additional accounts describe detainees being killed in ambulances, abducted from hospitals, or lured to their homes and shot at close range.

In some cases, families were allegedly forced to pay so-called "bullet fees" to retrieve the bodies of loved ones — a practice long associated with authoritarian regimes.

Time magazine, citing senior Iranian Health Ministry officials, reported Sunday that as many as 30,000 people may have been killed over two days.

According to those officials, the slaughter overwhelmed Iran's ability to handle the dead, exhausting body-bag supplies and forcing authorities to use semi-trailers instead of ambulances.

Time said that its reporting could not be independently verified but aligned with hospital tallies and medical whistleblowers operating under extreme risk.

Witnesses told Western outlets that rooftop snipers, heavy machine guns mounted on trucks, and mass gunfire were used after the regime shut down the internet and communications nationwide.

An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) official reportedly warned citizens on state television: "If a bullet hits you, don't complain."

Iran International further reported that proxy forces from Iraq and Syria were deployed alongside IRGC and Basij units, indicating that the crackdown was centrally planned and approved at the highest levels of the regime.

Sources say the operation followed a speech by Khamenei invoking terror as a tool of control.

Human rights advocates say the events amount to crimes against humanity.

• Global Silence Deafening Over Iran's War Against Its Own People
• Report: Iran's Khamenei Has Gone Into Hiding