“I saw it with my own eyes – they fired directly into lines of protesters, and people fell where they stood.”
Omid’s voice trembled as he spoke, betraying his fear of being traced. It takes immense courage to breach the information blockade imposed within Iran, given the potential for reprisal by the authorities.
Omid, a man in his early 40s whose name has been changed to protect his identity, has been participating in protests against escalating economic hardship in a small city in southern Iran.
He reported that security forces had opened fire on unarmed protesters in his city using assault rifles resembling Kalashnikovs.
“We are fighting a brutal regime with empty hands,” he stated.
The BBC has received similar accounts corroborating the crackdown by security forces following the widespread protests that have swept the country in recent weeks.
Since the unrest began, internet access has been severely restricted by the government, making reporting from Iran increasingly challenging. BBC Persian is officially banned from operating within Iran.
One of the largest nationwide anti-government demonstrations occurred last Thursday, marking the twelfth consecutive night of protests. Observers note that many individuals appeared to join the demonstrations on Thursday and Friday following calls from Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last Shah of Iran, who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The subsequent day, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared, “The Islamic Republic will not back down.” Reports suggest that the most severe bloodshed occurred after this warning, as security forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operate under his direct command.
Iranian authorities have accused the United States and Israel of instigating the unrest, condemning what they describe as “terrorist actions,” according to state media reports.
A young woman from Tehran described last Thursday as feeling like “the day of judgement.”
“Even remote neighborhoods of Tehran were packed with protesters – places you wouldn’t believe,” she recounted.
“But on Friday, security forces only killed and killed and killed. Seeing it with my own eyes made me so unwell that I completely lost morale. Friday was a bloody day.”
She indicated that following Friday’s killings, fear permeated the populace, with many now resorting to chanting from alleys and within the confines of their homes.
According to her account, Tehran resembled a battlefield, with protesters and security forces establishing positions and seeking cover in the streets.
“In war, both sides have weapons. Here, people only chant and get killed. It is a one-sided war,” she lamented.
Eyewitnesses in Fardis, a city west of Tehran, reported that on Friday, members of the Basij paramilitary force, under the command of the IRGC, launched a sudden attack on protesters after hours, without any prior police presence.
The forces, identifiable by their uniforms and motorcycles, reportedly fired live ammunition directly at protesters, according to witnesses. Unmarked vehicles were also allegedly driven into alleys, with occupants firing upon residents who were not actively participating in the protests.
“Two or three people were killed in every alley,” one witness asserted.
Individuals who have provided accounts to BBC Persian suggest that the reality within Iran is difficult for the outside world to comprehend, and that the death toll reported by international media thus far represents only a fraction of their own estimates.
International news organizations are restricted from operating freely within Iran and largely rely on Iranian human rights groups active outside the country. On Monday, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) stated that at least 648 protesters in Iran had been killed, including nine individuals under the age of 18.
Some local sources and eyewitnesses are reporting very high numbers of fatalities across different cities, ranging from several hundreds to thousands.
The BBC is currently unable to independently verify these figures. As of yet, Iranian authorities have not provided official or transparent statistics regarding the number of protester deaths.
However, Iranian media has reported that 100 security personnel have been killed during the protests, alleging that protesters – whom they refer to as “rioters” – set fire to dozens of mosques and banks in various cities.
Videos verified by BBC Persian’s fact-checking team also depict police vehicles and some government buildings being set ablaze in different locations during the protests.
Testimonies and videos sent to BBC Persian are predominantly from larger cities such as Tehran, the nearby city of Karaj, Rasht in the north, Mashhad in the northeast, and Shiraz in the south. These areas benefit from greater access to the internet via the Starlink satellite network.
Information from smaller towns – where many early casualties occurred – is scarce, as access to Starlink is very limited.
However, the volume, consistency, and similarity of the accounts received from various cities point to the severity of the crackdown and the widespread use of lethal violence.
Nurses and medics who spoke to the BBC reported witnessing numerous dead bodies and injured protesters.
They stated that hospitals in many cities have been overwhelmed and are unable to treat those with severe injuries, particularly to the head and eyes. Some witnesses reported bodies being “stacked on top of each other” and not being released to families.
Graphic videos published on the activist-run Telegram channel Vahid Online on Sunday showed a large number of bodies at the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre in Tehran, with many families either mourning or attempting to identify the corpses.
In one of the videos, purportedly from Kahrizak, relatives are seen examining photographs of unidentified bodies displayed on a screen.
Numerous bodies in black bags were visible within the facility and on the street outside, with only some appearing to have been identified.
One video depicted the interior of a warehouse containing several bodies, while another showed a truck being unloaded, with individuals removing corpses from the vehicle.
A mortuary worker at a cemetery in Mashhad reported that before sunrise on Friday morning, between 180 and 200 bodies with severe head injuries were brought in and immediately buried.
A source in Rasht informed BBC Persian that 70 bodies of protesters were transferred to a hospital mortuary in the city on Thursday. According to the source, security forces demanded “payment for bullets” before releasing the bodies to families.
Concurrently, a medical staff member at a hospital in eastern Tehran told BBC Persian that on Thursday, approximately 40 bodies were brought there the same day. The hospital’s name has been withheld to protect the identity of the medic.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated on Sunday that he was “shocked by reports of violence and excessive use of force by the Iranian authorities against protesters, resulting in deaths and injuries in recent days.”
“I want to emphasize that, regardless of the death toll, the use of lethal force by security forces is concerning,” Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, told BBC Persian.