Doctor says more than 200 reported dead in Tehran as regime opens fire on mass protestshttps://t.co/TnXsa5TTYx
— TIME (@TIME) January 9, 2026
The turning point came Thursday night. After nearly two weeks of confusion and divided counsel within Iran’s security apparatus, the regime made its choice: bullets over restraint, violence over negotiation, survival at any cost.
A Tehran doctor’s haunting account to TIME reveals the human toll: at least 217 dead in just six hospitals, “most by live ammunition.” Young people cut down outside a northern Tehran police station by machine gun fire. Bodies removed by authorities under cover of darkness. If confirmed, these numbers represent exactly what protesters feared when the regime shut down internet and phone connections nationwide.
President Trump’s earlier warning that Iran would “pay hell” for killing demonstrators now hangs in the air, a red line crossed with brutal efficiency. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s response was equally blunt: “The Islamic Republic will not back down in the face of vandals” seeking to “please” Trump.
What makes this crackdown particularly significant is the regime’s visible weakness. Unlike previous protests, this movement began with bazaar merchants and working-class communities—the regime’s traditional base. “They can’t provide even basic economic welfare for their own population,” explained Iran expert Hossein Hafezian. “They are in survival mode now.”
The wild cards remain potent. Will middle-class Iranians continue joining protests despite the bloodshed? Most crucially, will rank-and-file security forces continue following orders? One riot police officer’s words capture the internal crisis: “My own family is urging me to take off my uniform and leave this job. I’m in the police force for the income, not to kill people.”
Some protesters have already chosen their hoped-for savior. “Our hope is with Trump,” one Kurdish demonstrator said. “He should do to Iran what he did to Venezuela.”
Whether Trump acts, whether protesters persist, whether security forces defect—these questions will determine if Iran’s regime survives its weakest moment in 45 years, or if Thursday night marked the beginning of its end.