Iran ‘killed 16,500 protesters and injured more than 300,000’ in brutal crackdown, report claims – as regime accused of ‘genocide under cover of digital darkness’

Iran’s religious regime is accused of launching its bloodiest crackdown in almost half a century after a new medical report claimed at least 16,500 protesters were killed and more than 300,000 injured in just three weeks of unrest.

The findings directly contradict the first public admission by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who admitted yesterday that ‘several thousands’ of people had died since the demonstrations broke out.

In a televised speech, he laid the blame on the protesters, branding them foreign-backed agitators and insisting the violence was instigated by armed ‘rebels’.

But doctors in Iran painted a much darker picture, according to a new medical report. Times. Medical personnel say the nature of the injuries has increased, which officials say is alarming.

While previous protests were met with rubber bullets and pellet guns, doctors are now reporting extensive bullet and shrapnel wounds to the head, neck and chest, consistent with military-grade weapons.

“This is a whole new level of brutality,” said Professor Amir Parasta, an Iranian-German eye surgeon who helped coordinate the doctors’ report.

“This is genocide under the guise of digital darkness,” Parasta added. ‘They said they would kill until this is over and they are doing it.’

Data compiled from eight major eye hospitals and 16 emergency departments show that 16,500 to 18,000 people, including children and pregnant women, were killed and up to 360,000 were injured.

Protesters in Tehran set a vehicle on fire. Even by the regime’s own estimates, 2 to 3 thousand people were killed, making it one of the largest massacres in the history of the Islamic Republic.

Families and residents gathered at the Kahrizak Forensic Office, facing rows of body bags as they searched for relatives killed during the regime’s violent crackdown on nationwide protests

This data has not been independently verified, however, although US-based right-wing group HRANA estimates that 3,000 people were killed in the protests.

According to testimonies collected from healthcare workers across the country, the vast majority of deaths and injuries occurred in just two days in what one source described as a ‘complete carnage’; This marks the most violent use of force since the Islamic Republic’s founding 47 years ago.

The vast majority of victims are young. Many are believed to be under 30, and social media is awash with tributes to the students, athletes and artists whose lives were cut short.

The dead include a 23-year-old fashion designer, three young football players, including a 17-year-old youth team captain in Tehran, a 21-year-old champion basketball player, a budding film director and a student at the University of Bristol who dreamed of studying for a PhD.

Iranian authorities have not responded to the allegations, which, if true, would represent one of the deadliest crackdowns on civil protests in modern history.

Parasta said his colleagues in the field were traumatized by what they witnessed, even though many of them had experience treating war wounded.

Communication with the outside world has been cut off since the regime shut down the internet earlier this month, forcing doctors and activists to rely on smuggled Starlink satellite terminals to transmit evidence.

Using technology is illegal and dangerous; Revolutionary Guard units are reportedly searching for the dishes.

This comes after Khamenei acknowledged yesterday that thousands of people had been killed during recent anti-government protests, some in an ‘inhumane, brutal manner’.

While his supporters chanted ‘Death to America, death to England’, Khamenei said in his speech broadcast on state television on Saturday, ‘Israel and those linked to the USA caused great damage and killed thousands of people.’

A new medical report claims at least 16,500 protesters have been killed and more than 300,000 injured in just three weeks of unrest

Khamenei said in his post on the

Protesters set fire to makeshift barricades near a religious center on January 10, 2026

He accused US President Donald Trump of being directly involved in the unrest, branding the US president a ‘criminal’ and claiming he personally intervened in what he described as a foreign-backed ‘insurgency’.

‘We consider the US President guilty of both the losses, the damages, and the slander he made against the Iranian nation.

‘It was clear that the nature of this discord and that this discord belonged to America. Americans planned and acted.

‘The aim of the Americans – and I say this clearly with my forty-plus years of experience in the Islamic Republic – is to swallow Iran.’

Later, the participants were heard chanting ‘Death to America, Death to America, Death to America’.

Khamenei said Iran would avoid a wider war but warned that the United States and Israel, which he blamed for the unrest, would also face consequences.

‘In the past,’ he said, ‘we have had many dissensions when similar sedition has occurred in our country; Those who intervened were generally the American press, second-rate politicians from America or European countries.’

Participants chanted slogans: “Death to America, death to England, death to traitors, death to Israel.”

Khamenei further increased his accusations in his post on

In response, Trump called for an end to Ayatollah Khamenei’s nearly 40-year reign.

Iranian demonstrators gather on a street to protest the devaluation of their currency in Tehran on January 8, 2026

“This guy is a sick man who needs to run his country properly and stop killing people,” Trump said in an interview with Politico on Saturday.

‘His country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world due to poor leadership. ‘It is time to seek new leadership in Iran.’

Recently, Trump said that “help is on the way” to protesting Iranians and that his administration would “act accordingly” if the killing of demonstrators continued or if Iranian authorities executed detained protesters.

In his speech, Khamenei said that the rebels were armed with live ammunition imported from abroad, without naming any country.

‘We are not making plans, we are not dragging the country into war. But we don’t release local criminals. There are international criminals worse than domestic criminals. The Iranian leader said, “We do not leave them alone either.”