Famed composer quits state-run film festival in protest at killings

The closed-door meeting was held to brief senior government officials and local governors on the brutal crackdown on protesters, the source told Iran International.

The senior official said security forces were given “full authority and a blank check to attack, with the aim of creating maximum fear to deter the resurgence of protests," the source said.

The order, he added, made no distinction between civilians and others.

The senior official speaking at the meeting was presenting assessments by security bodies that sharply contradict the government’s official figures on the killings.

While the official death toll stands at nearly 3,000, classified documents and eyewitness reports reviewed by Iran International’s editorial board show that more than 36,500 people were killed during the targeted suppression of Iran’s national uprising on the orders of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Following Khamenei’s speech on January 9, briefing sessions and internal discussions among senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders used phrases such as “victory through terror” and “fight them until there is no more sedition," according to sources familiar with the discussions.

The same language later appeared on Telegram channels linked to pro-government groups.

Use of foreign forces

During the closed-door meeting, the senior government official confirmed earlier reports about the use of foreign forces in suppressing the protests, saying the Revolutionary Guards, its Basij militia, as well as Quds Force-linked units trained in Chechnya, Iraq, Pakistan, and Sudan were involved.

Iran International reported earlier this month that Iranian-backed Iraqi militias had begun recruiting and deploying fighters to assist Iranian forces in cracking down on protests.

That report said hundreds of Shiite militiamen from groups including Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada and the Badr Organization had been sent into Iran through multiple border crossings.

The fighters were transferred under the guise of pilgrimage trips and gathered at a base in Ahvaz before being dispatched to various regions, Iran International reported.

The building damaged in a blast in Bandar Abbas on Saturday was not connected to a gas network, said a resident contradicting reports by some Iranian media that attributed the incident to a gas explosion.

In a video shared after the blast, the resident said the building had never been fitted with gas piping. State media later said that the cause of the incident was under investigation.

The head of crisis management at the Hormozgan Governorate said the blast left 14 people injured and one person dead.

Some reports said the blast killed the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, Alireza Tangsiri, which the IRGC’s public relations office denied.

Local media quoted residents in Parand, near Tehran, as saying thick smoke has covered the sky over the city, with one resident saying the haze has persisted for about two hours.

Officials cited by local outlets denied any security incident in the region and attributed the smoke to a fire in nearby scrubland.

Security forces arrested 16-year-old protester, Mohammad Amin Aghili, alive and later executed him while his family was attempting to secure temporary release on bail, eyewitnesses told Iran International.

The authorities detained the protester and later demanded bail when the family approached judicial officials to follow up on his release. After the family failed to provide the amount, they were eventually handed the body of their son.

According to the account, officials told the family the detainee had died by “suicide,” despite a gunshot wound to the head visible on his body. When relatives objected, authorities were quoted as responding: “That’s how it is.”

The public relations office of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps denied that its navy commander Alireza Tangsiri had been assassinated.

“The claim originated from an account known as Terror Alarm, which has previously circulated false information on security and military matters,” the IRGC said in a statement issued after a powerful blast struck a residential building in the southern city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday.