Security forces fired directly into crowds of protesters in at least six different cities across Iran, illustrating how widely violence has spread, according to a Washington Post review of videos that have surfaced online recently.
In one video, sustained gunfire rings out for about 20 seconds from a roof over a darkened street in Tehran toward protesters as they run away. When it breaks, protesters scream, “Death to Khamenei! Don’t be afraid!” referring to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The voices fade and the gunfire resumes.
Other videos, which surfaced since the government-imposed blackout began on Thursday, reveal the scale of the casualties. In one, at least a hundred bodies cloaked in bags await identification at a morgue in Tehran.
Iranian security forces firing on protesters are often seen using shotguns that can fire either lethal rounds or less-lethal munitions, such as rubber bullets, according to N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services, who reviewed videos at The Post’s request. The videos also show Iranian security forces using firearms that generally only take lethal rounds, such as AK-style rifles, he said.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency estimates that more than 2,500 people have been killed since protests began on Dec. 28, including 147 members of the security forces, making this wave of violence far deadlier than any previous Iranian state response to public protest. The Post could not independently verify the toll. But the videos paint a stark picture of a crackdown that rights groups say has only escalated amid the blackout.
President Donald Trump has warned Tehran that the killing of protesters could invite U.S. military action. Iranian officials have sought to justify the crackdown by claiming the protests had been infiltrated by terrorists and Israeli agents.
Much of the footage that has made it out in recent days appears to have been uploaded with smuggled Starlink terminals, according to Iranian digital rights activists, although the blackout continues. Iranian authorities have responded by attempting to jam the satellite service, which is illegal to own and use in Iran.
The videos demonstrate the enormous risk protesters are enduring to document what they have witnessed.
In one from Tehran, a protester can be heard frantically saying, “Record, record, record,” amid the sound of continuous gunfire. The person filming appears to be crouched down behind a car, holding their phone up high. “Put your phone down; they’ll shoot your hand. There’s a sniper among them,” another person warns.
A photo that began circulating on social media Tuesday shows a member of the security forces clad in body armor standing in the bed of a pickup truck behind a heavy machine gun in western Tehran.
Iranian security forces appear to be applying lethal force widely, from small cities in the country’s south to Hamadan, one of Iran’s most ancient cities in the west.
In Abadan, just 1½ miles from the southern border with Iraq, more than a dozen armed security officers clad in riot gear charge down a street, video shows. People dressed in civilian clothing follow them and throw objects picked up off the ground at the officers. At one point, a security officer points their weapon in the direction of the person filming and opens fire.
Nearly 400 miles from Abadan, security forces opened fire on a crowd of civilians in Neyriz, a city in the country’s south. The video, which began to circulate on Jan. 6, shows protesters and the police separated by less than 100 feet as gunfire erupts and the crowd of civilians run away. The camera jolts from side to side, capturing glimpses of hurried feet and the sound of gunshots and shrieks.
The videos show that hospitals and morgues are overwhelmed as they attempt to make space for the dead.
At Tehran’s Alghadir Hospital, at least a dozen bodies are piled in an alley, shrouded in blankets and plastic. Loved ones quietly weep and wail, standing around bodies that are illuminated by the hospital lights.
At a morgue on the outskirts of Tehran, officially known as the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Center, at least a hundred body bags fill the courtyard. A crowd surrounds a large white truck as more bodies are slowly brought out by workers dressed in protective white coveralls and face masks. The dead are probably civilians, according to Shahin Milani, executive director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, who said the apparent careless handling of the bodies indicates they are ordinary people who are unaffiliated with the regime.
In another video from the same location, which The Post is not publishing because of its graphic nature, people frantically search for their loved ones among the corpses, pulling back black plastic to reveal bloodied flesh and vacant faces inside. Two men lean over the corpse of their loved one. One of them breaks down in tears, collapsing onto the body with his head in his hands.
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