PARIS: Iranian official media on Wednesday (Jan 21) said 3,117 people were killed during protests which first erupted in late December and which activists say were suppressed with a deadly crackdown.
A statement by Iran’s foundation for veterans and martyrs, cited by state television, said 2,427 people in that toll including members of the security forces were considered under Islam to be “martyrs”, calling them “innocent” victims.
The clerical authorities have condemned the protest wave as a “terrorist” incident characterised by violent “riots” fuelled by the United States. Iran’s foreign minister issued the most direct threat yet against the United States after Tehran’s bloody crackdown, warning the Islamic Republic will be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack.”
Rights groups say thousands of protesters demanding change were killed by direct fire from the security forces.
Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) NGO says it has verified the deaths of 3,428 protesters killed by security forces but has warned this may only represent a minority of cases, adding that some estimates that “between 5,000 and 20,000 protesters may have been killed”.
