Other Accounts from Tehran
Witnesses also said that many bodies were at Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery Complex, 600 meters from the Kahrizak morgue. One person who went to identify the body of a loved one on January 10 said: “When we got close to the [large] halls, we saw bodies piled on top of bodies. They were in body bags, and some had tags with identification details. From the size of the halls, I could estimate that between 1,500 to 2,000 bodies were held there.” The witness said that more bodies were arriving by refrigerated trucks in the late afternoon when they were leaving the cemetery.
A human rights defender said that a relative who had gone to the cemetery on January 9 to identify the body of a loved one reported that relatives identified 300 bodies, shown on video screens, on that day alone.
A relative of a young protester in Tehran said that the family searched for their loved one “among a pile of hundreds of bodies” in a Tehran hospital on the evening of January 8.
Relatives of victims, other informed sources, and verified videos describe the state’s heavily militarized response to the protests in Tehran on January 8, 9, and 10. One person said that on the evening of January 8, her sister was protesting in central Tehran when a friend of hers who was also protesting was shot in the head from behind.
A person interviewed who knew Robina Aminian, a 23-year-old student, said that she was also shot in the head from behind while protesting in Tehran on January 8. Aminian’s family later identified her body among a large number of bodies in a Tehran hospital. Human Rights Watch also obtained information that a woman was shot in the throat on the evening of January 8 in Tehran as she was marching in front of her husband during the protests.
A witness said that security forces “began a massacre” as crowds dispersed at protests they attended, and that they pointed their weapons at protesters as they left, including at their torsos, on at least two occasions, ordering them to “return home.”
Human Rights Watch also reviewed two accounts sent to medical professionals outside Iran by staff in two hospitals in eastern Tehran. In one account, the source refers to a large number of people brought to the hospital with no vital signs. The other reported that nearly 40 bodies had been brought to their hospital on January 8. An activist outside Iran said that medical staff in two hospitals in Tehran had reported that about 500 dead bodies had been brought in by the evening of January 8.
One geolocated video recorded at night from a building overlooking Police Station 126 in the Tehranpars neighborhood of the capital shows a security force member on a police station roof firing an automatic weapon, as well as other security force members shooting other firearms at protesters and, apparently, toward the person filming the scene. Throughout the 6-minute video, hundreds of shots were fired.
Alborz Province
Human Rights Watch received a 21-second video reportedly taken in Fardis, Alborz province. The Guardian reported on the same video it received from activists in Iran after crackdowns were reported in Fardis on January 8. The video shows two people lying on the ground; one has an injury just above his right eye and is bleeding profusely from his mouth. Someone helping him says: “He’s not breathing. Please hold on, for God’s sake, please hold on.”
Kermanshah Province
Human Rights Watch reviewed 12 short accounts by witnesses in Kermanshah sent to a journalist on the evening of January 8, who shared them with the organization, shortly before the internet shutdown, who shared them with the organization. The accounts draw a harrowing picture of security forces’ use of lethal force in several areas, including in Shahrak-e Moallem, Maskan, and Darrah Derejh neighborhoods, as well as in Gilan-e Gharb and Eslamabad-e Gharb cities.
In one account, a witness said: “Kermanshah is a war zone with nonstop gunfire.” Two others described sounds of gunfire continuing for hours. One described a member of the security forces leaving a vehicle and “riddling protesters, mostly women and girls chanting at a crossroad, with bullets.” Another said that “security forces are massacring everyone.”
Human Rights Watch also spoke with three people who had spoken with witnesses in Kermanshah. One said that, based on credible accounts from one hospital in Kermanshah city, nearly 300 people had been admitted on January 8 with no vital signs, most with signs of gunshot wounds to the head and chest, and 41 people still alive with gunshot wounds.
A video filmed in the morning and posted to X on January 8 and geolocated by GeoConfirmed shows large numbers of armed security forces rushing toward protesters in Maskan town, a neighborhood in Kermanshah city. One man holding a shotgun fires repeatedly toward cars in traffic as a vehicle swerves to avoid him.
Razavi Khorasan Province
Witness accounts and verified videos indicate similar unlawful use of lethal force by security forces in the Razavi Khorasan province, including in Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city, resulting in large-scale killings.
Human Rights Watch reviewed three short accounts by witnesses in Razavi Khorasan, sent to a medical professional on the evening of January 8, shortly before the internet shutdown. In one account, a medical professional in Mashhad reported direct knowledge of at least 15 deaths, including a woman as well as 5 men whose killings by gunfire he witnessed on one street alone on January 8. Another account reported that dozens of bodies had been taken to two hospitals in Mashhad in the afternoon of January 8.
A third account revealed the scale of killings in the city of Mashhad: “They have killed so many, as if lambs have been slaughtered on the streets, the ground is drenched in blood. … [T]here were no more [shotgun] pellets after Thursday [January 8]; security forces only fired rifles.”
An account by a medical professional, obtained by a human rights organization and shared with Human Rights Watch, said that between about 7 p.m. on January 9 and 2 a.m. on January 10, about 150 bodies of killed protesters and bystanders were taken to one hospital alone in Mashhad.
Human Rights Watch reviewed a video said to be taken in Mashhad that showed two men in black uniforms on a second-floor balcony. Researchers were not able to independently identify where it was filmed. One of the men in the video fires three times in the direction of protesters gathered outside the building, as seen by three flashes and loud bangs.
Human Rights Watch consulted media forensic experts from Deepfakes Rapid Response Force, an initiative of the nongovernmental organization WITNESS, who found no significant indicators of artificial intelligence manipulation. But due to the slowdown effect that had already been added to the video, the results were inconclusive as to whether the video was otherwise modified.
Other Accounts from Tehran
Witnesses also said that many bodies were at Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery Complex, 600 meters from the Kahrizak morgue. One person who went to identify the body of a loved one on January 10 said: “When we got close to the [large] halls, we saw bodies piled on top of bodies. They were in body bags, and some had tags with identification details. From the size of the halls, I could estimate that between 1,500 to 2,000 bodies were held there.” The witness said that more bodies were arriving by refrigerated trucks in the late afternoon when they were leaving the cemetery.
A human rights defender said that a relative who had gone to the cemetery on January 9 to identify the body of a loved one reported that relatives identified 300 bodies, shown on video screens, on that day alone.
A relative of a young protester in Tehran said that the family searched for their loved one “among a pile of hundreds of bodies” in a Tehran hospital on the evening of January 8.
Relatives of victims, other informed sources, and verified videos describe the state’s heavily militarized response to the protests in Tehran on January 8, 9, and 10. One person said that on the evening of January 8, her sister was protesting in central Tehran when a friend of hers who was also protesting was shot in the head from behind.
A person interviewed who knew Robina Aminian, a 23-year-old student, said that she was also shot in the head from behind while protesting in Tehran on January 8. Aminian’s family later identified her body among a large number of bodies in a Tehran hospital. Human Rights Watch also obtained information that a woman was shot in the throat on the evening of January 8 in Tehran as she was marching in front of her husband during the protests.
A witness said that security forces “began a massacre” as crowds dispersed at protests they attended, and that they pointed their weapons at protesters as they left, including at their torsos, on at least two occasions, ordering them to “return home.”
Human Rights Watch also reviewed two accounts sent to medical professionals outside Iran by staff in two hospitals in eastern Tehran. In one account, the source refers to a large number of people brought to the hospital with no vital signs. The other reported that nearly 40 bodies had been brought to their hospital on January 8. An activist outside Iran said that medical staff in two hospitals in Tehran had reported that about 500 dead bodies had been brought in by the evening of January 8.
One geolocated video recorded at night from a building overlooking Police Station 126 in the Tehranpars neighborhood of the capital shows a security force member on a police station roof firing an automatic weapon, as well as other security force members shooting other firearms at protesters and, apparently, toward the person filming the scene. Throughout the 6-minute video, hundreds of shots were fired.
Alborz Province
Human Rights Watch received a 21-second video reportedly taken in Fardis, Alborz province. The Guardian reported on the same video it received from activists in Iran after crackdowns were reported in Fardis on January 8. The video shows two people lying on the ground; one has an injury just above his right eye and is bleeding profusely from his mouth. Someone helping him says: “He’s not breathing. Please hold on, for God’s sake, please hold on.”
Kermanshah Province
Human Rights Watch reviewed 12 short accounts by witnesses in Kermanshah sent to a journalist on the evening of January 8, who shared them with the organization, shortly before the internet shutdown, who shared them with the organization. The accounts draw a harrowing picture of security forces’ use of lethal force in several areas, including in Shahrak-e Moallem, Maskan, and Darrah Derejh neighborhoods, as well as in Gilan-e Gharb and Eslamabad-e Gharb cities.
In one account, a witness said: “Kermanshah is a war zone with nonstop gunfire.” Two others described sounds of gunfire continuing for hours. One described a member of the security forces leaving a vehicle and “riddling protesters, mostly women and girls chanting at a crossroad, with bullets.” Another said that “security forces are massacring everyone.”
Human Rights Watch also spoke with three people who had spoken with witnesses in Kermanshah. One said that, based on credible accounts from one hospital in Kermanshah city, nearly 300 people had been admitted on January 8 with no vital signs, most with signs of gunshot wounds to the head and chest, and 41 people still alive with gunshot wounds.
A video filmed in the morning and posted to X on January 8 and geolocated by GeoConfirmed shows large numbers of armed security forces rushing toward protesters in Maskan town, a neighborhood in Kermanshah city. One man holding a shotgun fires repeatedly toward cars in traffic as a vehicle swerves to avoid him.
Razavi Khorasan Province
Witness accounts and verified videos indicate similar unlawful use of lethal force by security forces in the Razavi Khorasan province, including in Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city, resulting in large-scale killings.
Human Rights Watch reviewed three short accounts by witnesses in Razavi Khorasan, sent to a medical professional on the evening of January 8, shortly before the internet shutdown. In one account, a medical professional in Mashhad reported direct knowledge of at least 15 deaths, including a woman as well as 5 men whose killings by gunfire he witnessed on one street alone on January 8. Another account reported that dozens of bodies had been taken to two hospitals in Mashhad in the afternoon of January 8.
A third account revealed the scale of killings in the city of Mashhad: “They have killed so many, as if lambs have been slaughtered on the streets, the ground is drenched in blood. … [T]here were no more [shotgun] pellets after Thursday [January 8]; security forces only fired rifles.”
An account by a medical professional, obtained by a human rights organization and shared with Human Rights Watch, said that between about 7 p.m. on January 9 and 2 a.m. on January 10, about 150 bodies of killed protesters and bystanders were taken to one hospital alone in Mashhad.
Human Rights Watch reviewed a video said to be taken in Mashhad that showed two men in black uniforms on a second-floor balcony. Researchers were not able to independently identify where it was filmed. One of the men in the video fires three times in the direction of protesters gathered outside the building, as seen by three flashes and loud bangs.
Human Rights Watch consulted media forensic experts from Deepfakes Rapid Response Force, an initiative of the nongovernmental organization WITNESS, who found no significant indicators of artificial intelligence manipulation. But due to the slowdown effect that had already been added to the video, the results were inconclusive as to whether the video was otherwise modified.
Other Provinces
Human Rights Watch obtained information pointing to similar large-scale killings in Gilan, Mazandaran, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, and Markazi provinces.
Two people from Gilan province said that their relatives reported that dozens had been killed during protests in small towns there, including around the town of Fuman. One person who had spoken to his family in Gilan province said: “My father knew between 15 to 20 people who were killed only in a small town in Gilan.” An account received by a medical professional and shared with Human Rights Watch stated that “security forces shot many dead in Rasht,” Gilan’s provincial capital.
A witness described a heavy presence of security forces in Amol, Mazandaran province, on January 8 and hearing continuous gunfire in the evening. Two other accounts described a lethal response to protests in Amol as well as Sari and Babol, other towns in Mazandaran, with one reporting: “They have killed many [in Amol] but the news is not getting out.”
A person Human Rights Watch interviewed who spoke with a witness in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province said that the security forces were using heavy machine guns, shotguns, and rifles against protesters. The witness said they saw 25 bodies at the governor’s compound in the provincial capital, Yasuj, on January 10, and many people with eye injuries from metal pellets.
A witness said that the security forces cracked down on protesters in Mahallat, Markazi province on January 8 with tear gas and shotguns. She saw three people bleeding, including a boy under 18, who had been shot with pellets in their faces. The witness reported that two people killed that night included a 15 or 16-year-old boy who was shot three times while trying to climb the wall of the intelligence office. The other man was shot in the head.
Authorities’ Harassment of Victims’ Families
The Iranian authorities have withheld bodies of victims, denied families the right to bury and mourn their loved ones in a dignified manner, and in some cases buried the bodies without the families’ knowledge or consent at locations demanded by officials.
In one case, the relative of a young protester killed in Tehran on January 8 said that security forces coerced the family to bury their loved one in a cemetery far from her hometown to prevent a crowd from gathering at her funeral.
Authorities have also coerced families to either make statements that their loved ones were members of the Basij forces and killed by protesters or to pay significant fees to receive the remains.
