Iran’s crackdown has killed at least 6126: activists

Activists say Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests has killed at least 6,126 people, with many others still feared dead.

The new figures come from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in many cases of unrest in Iran. The group verifies each death through a network of activists in Iran.

It was stated that the dead included at least 5,777 protesters, 214 government forces, 86 children and 49 civilians who were not protesting. The statement stated that more than 41,800 people were arrested during the crackdown.

The Associated Press was unable to independently assess the death toll because authorities cut off the internet and disrupted calls to the Islamic Republic.

The Iranian government put the death toll at 3,117, saying 2,427 were civilians and security forces, and described the rest as “terrorists”. In the past, the Iranian theocracy has undercounted or not reported deaths from unrest.

This death toll exceeds that of other protests and unrest there in decades and is reminiscent of the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The protests that started in Iran on December 28, when the Iranian currency, the rial, lost value and quickly spread throughout the country. They were met with violent repression by the Iranian theocracy; The extent of this pressure is beginning to become clear as the country faces more than two weeks of internet blackouts – the most extensive in its history.

Iran’s ambassador to the UN told a UN Security Council meeting late Monday that Trump’s repeated threats to use military force against the country were “neither vague nor misinterpreted.”

Amir Saeid Iravani also repeated allegations that the US leader had incited “armed terrorist groups” backed by the US and Israel to violence, but provided no evidence to support his claims.

Iranian state media has sought to blame forces abroad for the protests, with the theocracy generally incapable of finding solutions to the country’s ailing economy, which is still under pressure from international sanctions, especially its nuclear program.

On Tuesday, exchange offices in Tehran offered a record low rial/dollar exchange rate.

Iran has already greatly limited subsidized exchange rates to reduce corruption. It also offered the equivalent of $7 a month to most people in the country to cover rising costs. But just a decade ago, Iranian people saw the rial fall from 32,000 to 1 US dollar, depleting the value of their savings.

Iran has projected its power across the Middle East through the “Axis of Resistance,” a network of proxy militant groups in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. It was also seen as a defensive buffer aimed at keeping conflict away from Iran’s borders. But it collapsed after Israel targeted Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and others during the Gaza war.