Less than three weeks later, the nationwide protests against the government in Iran have turned into one of the most bloody incidences in the recent history of the country as human rights observers documented the killing of thousands and arrest of tens of thousands of people. The vast size of the violence, aggravated by an all but complete internet blackout, has made independent verification a challenge, although there are early reports out of morgues, hospitals and eyewitnesses that paint a grim picture of a state operation aimed at putting the kind of dissent that the country has almost entirely crushed in a few days.
The data that has been collected by the Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) has shown that, as of December 28, 2025, at least 3,428 protesters have been killed after people started demonstrating against the government. Sources within the Ministry of Health in Iran informed the organization that over 3,300 deaths were reported between January 8 and 12 alone, the majority of them being below the age of 30. Body bags and mourning families are captured on video at Tehran mortuaries, which highlights the human cost of the crackdown. In Karaj, eye witnesses testified of how security forces fired heavy machine guns and giving “final shots” to demonstrators who were wounded.
The riot started at the Bat bazaar district of Tehran concerning the deteriorating economic state, and extended to all of the 31 provinces in a short time. The demands of protesters grew beyond the demands of relief against inflation and collapse of currency, and the demands of a systematic change in politics. With the rise of the movement, the government declared the conditions of martial law in a few regions, especially in the Kurdish ones, and blocked the phone and internet across the country. NetBlocks states that Iranian internet connectivity was down due to the blocking of 99 percent of its internet connectivity since January 8, crippling information flow.
Cases have attracted specific focus on individual cases. In Fardis, near Tehran, a 26-year-old shop owner, Erfan Soltani, was arrested in his place of residence and sentenced to death in less than two days, Hengaw, a Norway-based group, reported. His execution was however later deferred but the rights campaigners are concerned that his case is an indication of a greater plan to apply capital punishment to protesters. The court head has also promised rapid justice on those found guilty of any terrorist action, which is punishable by death as per Iranian laws.
The global response has been bitter. President Donald Trump has threatened publicly that the US would respond with very strong action should Iran proceed with executions by saying in a social media posting that Iranian leaders would reap a great price with additional violence. He has also broken off all his engagements with Iranian counterparts until the killings are put to rest, vowing that assistance will be forthcoming in one way or another including economic support. Whereas he has not given other actions, his remarks come after previous reports of U.S military attacks on Iranian nuclear installations in previous years.
The contemporary repression has been likened by human rights organizations with mass killings in the 1980s when thousands of political prisoners were executed. The director of IHRNGO, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said that thousands more would face the risk of execution until international intervention is done urgently. The reports of the group contain the information about the shot protesters that surrendered, injured people that were killed in hospitals, and those security forces that do not speak Farsi, which presupposes the usage of the forces beyond the territories that were affected.
Through blackout, there have been snapshots of video footage through connections made through satellites, which portray protests in at least 67 cities. Videos of the Punak Square in Tehran show hundreds of people waves of mobile phones during a blackout and other videos show chants of death to Khamenei in funerals. These visions have been confirmed by overlaying building plans and landmarks with satellite images but a paucity of uploads emphasizes the efficiency of the blackout in secluding the population.
The demonstrations are one of the greatest threats to the Iranian clerical structure since the 1979 revolution. As economic discontents are combined with political needs and the state responds with the use of lethal force and a threat of mass execution, the course of the unrest will rely on whether the internal pressure and global criticism can make the government change its course. At present, a mixture of repression, limited communication, and the growing number of casualties tend to indicate the crisis that is unlikely to be resolved soon.
