London, Britain – A new human rights and medical report obtained by the British newspaper The Sunday Times and published on Saturday revealed horrific details of the Iranian authorities’ crackdown on protesters. The report asserts that the death toll far exceeds initial estimates, describing the level of brutality as unprecedented. According to the report, compiled by doctors on the ground in Iran, the clashes resulted in the deaths of at least 16,500 people.
Most of them fell within just two days of the bloody escalation, with some 330,000 wounded, the majority of whom were young people under the age of 30. Hospitals also reported thousands of eye injuries. One hospital in Tehran alone recorded 7,000 cases, and nearly 1,000 people lost sight in at least one eye as a result of deliberate gunfire.
Tragic stories of the victims
Technology played a crucial role in smuggling this data out of the country. Thousands of SpaceX Starlink antennas were used, which were smuggled into Iran after the regime completely cut off the internet on January 8th.Despite the Revolutionary Guard’s pursuit of these devices on the ground, doctors were able to transport evidence, testimonies, and photos of the victims.
Social media documented tragic stories of victims representing the elite of Iranian youth, including a 23-year-old fashion designer, three football players, one of whom was the captain of a youth team who was only 17 years old, and a PhD student who was preparing to join the British University of Bristol and was killed in his first participation in the demonstrations.
Supporting repression operations
Eyewitnesses who fled the country reported horrific images of the use of military weapons against civilians, including direct sniper fire targeting heads and chests from rooftops and the use of heavy machine guns from trucks equipped with machine guns to open fire on gatherings.
Testimonies also indicated the involvement of Shia militias brought in from Iraq to support the crackdown. Commenting on these developments, Professor Amir Parasta, an Iranian-German ophthalmologist, said that what is happening today is not simply the dispersal of demonstrations with rubber bullets. As in 2022, it is the blatant use of military weapons and shrapnel intended to kill or cause permanent disfigurement to the head and neck.
