At least 12,000 people have been killed in Iran in the largest killing in the country's contemporary history, much of it carried out on January 8 and 9 during an ongoing internet shutdown, according to senior government and security sources speaking to Iran International.
After cross-checking information obtained from reliable sources, including the Supreme National Security Council and the presidential office, the initial estimate by the Islamic Republic’s security institutions is that at least 12,000 people were killed in this nationwide killing.
Iran International reached the conclusion after reviewing information it received from a source close to the Supreme National Security Council; two sources in the presidential office; accounts from several sources within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the cities of Mashhad, Kermanshah, and Isfahan; testimonies from eyewitnesses and families of those killed; field reports; data linked to medical centers; and information provided by doctors and nurses in various cities.
The killing was carried out on the direct order of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, with the explicit knowledge and approval of the heads of all three branches of government, and with an order for live fire issued by the Supreme National Security Council, Iran International has learned.
Iran International’s Editorial Board has set out its findings on the latest crackdown in a statement titled “The killing of 12,000 Iranians will not be buried in silence,” calling for documents and testimony by the victims' families.
The full text of the statement follows:
Iran is under a coordinated blackout aimed not only at security control but at concealing the truth. Internet cuts, crippled communications, media shutdowns, and intimidation of journalists and witnesses point to one goal: preventing a vast and historic crime from being seen.
In recent days, after receiving scattered but shocking and deeply troubling reports, Iran International has focused on verifying information to build a clearer picture of the scale of repression and the killings during the latest protests.
In a country where authorities deliberately restrict access to information, such an assessment is difficult and time-consuming – particularly because rushing to publish incomplete casualty figures risks errors in documenting events and could distort the true scale of this tragedy.
From Sunday, the volume of evidence and the convergence of accounts reached a point where a relatively accurate assessment became possible.
Over the past two days, Iran International’s editorial board has reviewed – through a rigorous, multi-stage process and in accordance with established professional standards – information received from a source close to the Supreme National Security Council; two sources in the presidential office; accounts from several sources within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the cities of Mashhad, Kermanshah, and Isfahan; testimonies from eyewitnesses and families of those killed; field reports; data linked to medical centers; and information provided by doctors and nurses in various cities.
Based on these reviews, we have concluded that:
In the largest killing in Iran’s contemporary history – carried out largely over two consecutive nights, Thursday and Friday, January 8 and 9 – at least 12,000 people were killed.
In terms of geographic scope, intensity of violence, and the number of deaths in a short time span, this killing is unprecedented in Iran’s history.
Based on information received, those killed were mainly shot by forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij.
This killing was fully organized, not the result of “sporadic” and “unplanned” clashes.
Information received from the Supreme National Security Council and the presidential office indicates that the killing was carried out on the direct order of Ali Khamenei, with the explicit knowledge and approval of the heads of all three branches of government, and with an order for live fire issued by the Supreme National Security Council.
Many of those killed were young people under the age of 30.
Casualty estimate
Based on available data and cross-checking information obtained from reliable sources, including the Supreme National Security Council and the presidential office, the initial estimate by the Islamic Republic’s security institutions is that at least 12,000 people were killed in this nationwide killing.
It is clear that, under a communications blockade and without direct access to information, confirming a final figure will require further, detailed documentation.
Experience in recent years shows that security institutions have consistently withheld information and avoided recording and announcing accurate figures for those killed.
Iran International commits to refining this figure with the help of its audience – by collecting documentation, cross-checking accounts, and verifying information on an ongoing basis – so that no name is lost and no victim’s family is left unheard.
Communications and media blackout
Media outlets inside the country have been shut down. Hundreds of national and local newspapers, an unprecedented development in the history of Iran’s press, have fallen silent since Thursday.
Today, aside from the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), only a handful of news websites remain active inside the country, and they too operate under censorship and the direct control of security institutions.
This is not “crisis control.” It is an admission of fear that the truth will be exposed.
Call for evidence
Iran International calls on all compatriots inside and outside the country to send any documents, videos, photographs, audio testimony, and information related to those killed, medical centers, locations of clashes, the time and place of incidents, and any other verifiable details from the events of recent days.
The security of sources and confidentiality of information are our absolute priority.
Verified findings and international follow-up
After careful verification and assessment, Iran International will publish its findings and provide them to all relevant international bodies and institutions.
The Islamic Republic cannot conceal this crime by cutting the people of Iran off from the world. The truth will be recorded; the names of those killed will be preserved; and this massacre will not be buried in silence.
These honored dead belong not only to their grieving families and loved ones, but to the national revolution of Iranians.
Iran International Editorial Board
The killings in Kuhdasht, Azna and Lordegan came before the government shut down internet access, cutting off communication with the outside world and plunging Iran into silence. The area home to Iran's marginalized Lur ethnic minority.
In those early hours, shock and horror spread through hushed calls and voice notes, as brief videos surfaced of blood-stained children of Iran — someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s loved one — all killed by security forces.
Sources who spoke to Iran International requested anonymity, fearing reprisals from authorities for speaking to the media.
Hessam Khodayarifard: a life snuffed out on New Year’s Eve
Hessam Khodayarifard was shot dead in the western Iranian city of Kuhdasht on the evening of New Year's eve. The 22-year-old was killed on Wednesday night, December 31, 2025, during a crackdown on protests, two family sources told Iran International.
Authorities initially refused to hand over his body and pressured the family to present him as a member of the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij militia, relatives said. The claim was later publicly rejected by Hessam’s father, who spoke at his son’s funeral after the body was eventually returned.
But his burial brought no peace. Mourners gathered in large numbers, chanting anti-government slogans. Confrontations erupted as security personnel moved in, turning the funeral into another site of repression where grief and anger were met with force.
Shayan Asadollahi: the family’s only provider
On New Year’s Day, gunfire cut through the night in Azna in Iran’s western Lorestan province, where Shayan Asadollahi was shot dead. He was 28.
A relative told Iran International that Shayan was killed as he and a group of other protesters were returning home from a demonstration. Several military pickup trucks belonging to the Revolutionary Guard attacked the group, the source said, and security forces opened fire using military-grade weapons.
A live round struck Shayan in the abdomen according to photographs verified by Iran International. At least two other protesters were also killed during the same crackdown, the source added. Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Fars News later reported that three protesters had been killed in Azna.
Shayan was a barber, known in his community for working long hours to support his family. About a year earlier, his father and uncle had both died in an accident, the source said, leaving Shayan as the family’s sole breadwinner.
Reza Moradi: a child killed in the protests
Another victim from Azna was still a child.
Reza Moradi was 17 — the eldest child in his family which hails from the Abdolvand tribe, part of Iran’s Lur minority. He was shot on Thursday, January 1 during protests outside Azna’s central police station.
Security forces shot him twice, a source close to the family said: once in the head and once in the lower torso.
Video analyzed and verified by Iran International from that evening shows Reza unconscious on the ground, blood visible along the side of his head. Bystanders carried him to Valian Hospital in the nearby city of Aligudarz.
The hospital was placed under heavy security, the source said. Visits were banned. Only once — after repeated insistence — was Reza’s mother allowed to see her son briefly.
Reza died in hospital on the following Monday morning.
Authorities initially refused to hand over his body. When Reza was eventually returned and buried, a video at his grave site showed his younger brother clinging to the fresh earth in tears.
Reza had dropped out of school to help support his family, working as an apprentice in auto body repair and paint. His father is a laborer, and the family’s financial situation was dire, the source said.
Sajjad Valamanesh: grief and coercion
In neighboring Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, home to Bakhtiari Lur communities and about a three-hour drive southeast of Azna, authorities followed up another deadly shooting with further crackdowns.
In the city of Lordegan, Sajjad Valamanesh, a 20-year-old protester, was killed after being shot by security forces during demonstrations on Thursday, January 1, sources close to the family told Iran International.
The violence did not end with his death. Authorities repeatedly contacted Sajjad’s relatives in the days that followed, including calls from the Revolutionary Guard’s Intelligence Organization, a source close to the family said.
His father was pressured into giving an interview aired by state media in which he called for an official crackdown on "rioters," but the source said he did so only to secure the release of Sajjad’s body for burial.
Sajjad was not a member of the Basij and was a monarchy supporter, the source said.
He was buried on Friday with a large crowd attending his funeral.
Witness to the fate of the boy in a blue T-shirt
A 20-year-old witness who was present at the protests in Azna said he saw security forces shoot a teenager who looked “no more than 15 years old” on a road near the city’s main police station, where protesters had gathered on January 1.
“I saw them with my own eyes,” he said. “Security forces shot the boy, and he fell into a roadside drainage ditch.”
A group of protesters rushed to help him, he said. “But he was not moving anymore.”
The witness said the scene stayed with him.
“After seeing what I saw, I just could not take it anymore,” he said. “So I went back to the protests the next day as well.”
In messages sent shortly before the internet was shut down, the witness said he feared the world would never know what was happening in his hometown.
“Maybe it does not matter to the world,” he said, “because Azna is so small.”
“But the truth is that Lurs and Bakhtiaris have been deeply harmed by this wretched regime, even though this land is rich and full of resources,” he added.
“For us, it is already over,” he said. “I only wish that the lives of the next generation will be more beautiful.”
Before contact was cut, he made a final plea: “Please tell our stories,” he said. “Please tell the world what they did to my people.”
Four names, countless others remain unknown
These four names represent only a fraction of what unfolded in those days. They are among the few cases Iran International was able to document in detail.
Eyewitnesses and medics told Iran International the preliminary death tolls since protests began on Dec. 28 had ramped up in recent days to up to 2,000 people.
As an internet shutdown entered its fifth day, cutting off Iranians from the world and silencing independent reporting, the scale of the violence and suffering remained unknown.
