ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian security forces killed at least 3,356 protesters and bystanders on January 8 and 9 alone, according to a new report by Iran Human Rights (IHR), accounting for 91 percent of all cases in which the organisation was able to establish an exact date of death during the nationwide crackdown.
The Oslo-based watchdog on Thursday published the names of more than 4,200 people it says were killed during the January protests, its most extensive documentation yet of the bloodshed. It warned that the true toll is likely considerably higher.
IHR said the list was compiled through months of data collection, cross-checking sources and verifying victims’ identities.
Among those identified are at least 420 women and 281 children under the age of 18. Twenty-five of the children were younger than 14, while the youngest documented victim was four and a half months old.
The organisation stressed that the figures represent a minimum documented toll, citing internet and telecommunications blackouts, threats against families, restricted access to hospitals and forensic records, and the impossibility of conducting independent investigations inside Iran.
The killings were documented across 30 of Iran’s 31 provinces. IHR said testimonies and case files showed recurring patterns of lethal force, including direct fire into gatherings, shots aimed at vital organs, sniper fire, and people being shot from behind or while fleeing. Some of those killed were not participating in demonstrations, it added.
Iranian authorities have officially put the overall death toll from the unrest at 3,117. IHR challenged that figure, saying at least 27 deaths recorded by provincial authorities and another 20 reported by state media were missing from the presidential office’s own list.
IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said the full scale of the killings would likely only emerge through an independent fact-finding process after the Islamic Republic.
The report comes as Iran again faces scrutiny over its treatment of protesters on the fourth anniversary of the death of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini, whose death in custody in September 2022 triggered the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising.
Amnesty International said this week that Iranian authorities killed 377 protesters and bystanders, including 56 children, during the 2022 uprising and identified 87 officials it says were implicated in the crackdown.
IHR said repression continued after the January street killings, with injured protesters, medical workers and victims’ families facing pressure and harassment. It said at least 29 people have since been executed in connection with the protests and 100 protesters have been sentenced to death.
Amiry-Moghaddam said the January crackdown demonstrated that the authorities were prepared to use “the most extreme forms of violence” to preserve power, describing the killings, pressure on families and execution threats against detainees as part of a broader policy of rule through fear.
US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has documented a substantially higher toll from the January protests. In its latest consolidated figures, HRANA said it had confirmed 7,015 deaths, including 6,508 protesters, 226 children under 18, 214 members of the security or pro-government forces, and 67 non-protesting civilians. It said another 11,744 reported deaths remained under review, underscoring the uncertainty surrounding the final toll.
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