Hundreds of protesters have been killed by security forces in what may be the largest − and possibly most consequential − wave of protests in Iran since 2009, human rights groups say.
The killings, difficult to verify because Iran has for days imposed a sweeping internet blackout, led to threats by President Donald Trump to intervene militarily. He has said he is weighing up military strikes, having pledged to take action if Iranian protesters were killed.
“A massacre is unfolding in the country since the internet and communications shutdown,” Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, told USA TODAY on Jan 12. “It’s a war unfolding on protesters.”
Trump is “keeping all of his options on the table,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Jan. 12. “And airstrikes would be one of the many, many options that are on the table for the commander-in-chief. Diplomacy is always the first option for the president.”
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activist News Agency says it has verified the deaths of nearly 500 protesters. Opposition groups say the death toll is higher. Anti-government demonstrators have taken to the streets across Iran over the last two weeks to protest economic corruption, spiralling costs and a currency crisis. There is also widespread discontent with social and cultural restrictions mandated by Iran’s clerical leadership.
One doctor who treated wounded protesters over the last week said hospitals in Tehran and the city of Isfahan were overwhelmed with the injured, according to a Jan. 12 human rights report.
Security forces in some cases used shotguns on demonstrators at close-range, as well as automatic weapons and heavy machine guns. The doctor said many of those injured suffered gunshot wounds to the head, chest and abdomen. Many victims arrived dead. The doctor’s first-hand testimony was published in full by Center for Human Rights in Iran.
Trump has said Iran’s leaders are seeking to negotiate and that a meeting has been set up, but that “we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting.”
Requests for comment from Iran’s diplomatic missions in New York and London were not immediately returned. It’s not immediately clear if Trump will be persuaded to use the U.S. military in Iran for human rights transgressions alone. Officials in Israel, which also tracks Iran closely and fought a 12-day war with Tehran last year, also did not immediately comment.
“I think the next three days will be crucial,” said Trita Parsi, a Washington, D.C,-based analyst of Iran. “But even if they manage to clamp down violently on the protests, it will only give (Iran’s authorities) a short respite unless they do something very significant, including potentially replacing Iran’s supreme leader. But even that may prove insufficient.”
During widespread unrest in Iran in 2009 that followed a contested election result, thousands were arbitrarily arrested and dozens killed on the streets or died in detention, according to Iran monitoring groups. Many said they were tortured. The last major protests in Iran were four years ago, sparked by the death in police custody of an Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.