Iranian government says 3,117, mostly civilians, killed in unrest

​​​​​​Tehran, Iran

The Iranian government announced the official death toll from nationwide protests, state media reported Wednesday.

The Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, a government body responsible for overseeing those killed in conflicts since the 1979 revolution, said 3,117 people were killed, with 2,427 security personnel and civilians.

The figures are based on information received from the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization, a forensic body affiliated with the country’s judiciary, it said in a statement.

The foundation said the deaths took place in “terrorist incidents” in recent days that were “reminiscent of the brutal and savage crimes of ISIS (Daesh).”

Many of the victims were “passersby who were killed as part of deliberate killing campaigns or fell victim to indiscriminate terrorist gunfire and what it described as blind brutality,” it said.

Others, it added, were among protesters who were shot within crowds by “organized terrorist elements.”

It is the first official death toll released by the government since protests broke out in late December in Tehran and later spread to cities across the country.

Previously, some human rights organizations outside Iran had published their own estimates, placing the number of deaths above 15,000, the majority of them protesters.

Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, rejected those reports.

Protests erupted in Iran amid worsening economic conditions, particularly the sharp depreciation of the national currency and soaring inflation.

Weeks later, following a call for street protests by Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former monarch, violence and street clashes between protesters and security personnel were reported in several cities, including Tehran.

Authorities have accused the United States and Israel of supporting “rioters” and “terrorists” who allegedly attacked public and private property, including shops, banks and mosques.

Police said hundreds accused of leading the protests had been arrested, while the judiciary vowed that there would be “no leniency” toward those responsible for violence and vandalism.

The US and several European countries have imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran for a “crackdown on protesters.”

Iranian diplomats have been banned from European Parliament buildings and Araghchi’s invitation to the World Economic Forum’s Davos summit was revoked.

Following the announcement of the official death toll, the Supreme National Security Council, the top security body, issued a statement saying it concluded, based on intelligence monitoring and assessments, that the events in recent weeks were a continuation of the 12-day war last June, blaming the US and Israel.

“The United States and the Zionist regime changed their tactics and targeted the social cohesion of the Iranian people, believing this would lay the groundwork for breaking the national will of Iran,” it said.

It added that Washington and Tel Aviv had sought to push protests toward violence in cities across the country, causing damage to the population and the nation.