Iran ‘killed 16,500 protesters and injured more than 300,000’ in brutal crackdown, report claims – as regime accused of ‘genocide under cover of digital darkness’ https://t.co/x5P0kUiuTe
— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) January 18, 2026
The death toll from Iran’s suppressed demonstrations has exceeded 16,500, with at least 330,000 injured, according to a network of Iranian doctors whose account far surpasses previous estimates, the Sunday Times reported. The doctors said most of the dead were people under 30, with the killing concentrated over a two-day period following the regime’s internet shutdown on January 8, and victims included children and pregnant women. The figures were compiled from staff in eight major eye hospitals and 16 emergency departments across Iran, with doctors able to communicate using banned Starlink internet terminals that have been smuggled into the country. “This is a whole new level of brutality,” Prof. Amir Parasta, an Iranian-German eye surgeon who helped coordinate the medical network, told the newspaper. “This time they are using military-grade weapons and what we are seeing are gunshot and shrapnel wounds in the head, neck, and chest.” The doctors noted their figures are likely conservative, as many people avoided hospitals out of fear of arrest by security forces, with videos and previous reports confirming that forces arrested patients with gunshot wounds.
Security forces used shotguns to fire pellets at protesters, resulting in at least 700 to 1,000 people losing eyes, though the total number blinded could reach several thousand, according to the medical network. In Tehran’s Noor Clinic alone, doctors treated 7,000 eye injuries, with one source reporting that in a single night, 800 procedures were performed to remove people’s eyes due to shotgun pellet injuries. “I’ve spoken to dozens of doctors on the ground, and they are really shocked and crying,” Parasta said. “These are surgeons who have seen war.” Eyewitnesses who escaped Iran described the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij militia roaming streets on motorbikes and pickup trucks, firing at protesters with machine guns. “Tell the whole world that on Friday, they sprayed everyone with gunfire. The IRGC forces were calmly trying to aim for people’s heads,” one witness told the Sunday Times. “Snipers on rooftops were shooting people in the back of the head,” another reported. “When we tried to go toward them to carry the bodies away, they opened fire on us.” One escapee described how “the streets here smell of blood,” while another reported that “injured people who were shot in the eyes and had their eyes removed were being immediately abducted from the operating theaters by security forces.”
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei acknowledged on Saturday that protests had left “several thousand” dead, marking the first indication from an Iranian leader of the casualty extent, while an Iranian official told Reuters that authorities had verified at least 5,000 deaths, including about 500 security personnel, blaming “terrorists and armed rioters.” The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency had previously put the death toll at 3,090, including at least 163 government-affiliated individuals, based on their network of activists inside Iran. The casualty numbers recall the chaos of the 1979 revolution and dwarf previous unrest death tolls from 2009 and 2022. US President Donald Trump appeared to call for regime change on Saturday, telling Politico, “It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” after threatening to attack Iran over protester killings. Iranian authorities have repeatedly blamed the US for the mass demonstrations, which began on December 28 over economic concerns before exploding into a mass movement demanding the clerical regime’s dismantlement, though Iran has since returned to an uneasy calm following the brutal suppression.