In January, after weeks of swelling protests, Iran went dark as the government imposed a near-total internet and communications shutdown. The severity of the blackout has made it unusually difficult to piece together what happened in the hours and days that followed.
Evidence has now emerged of killing on a mass scale. Across multiple cities, authorities opened fire on crowds, killing thousands and wounding thousands more. Estimates of the death toll range from a few thousand to over 35,000. Iranian authorities say just over 3,100 died, but an informal network of doctors inside the country estimated the toll may be about ten times that figure.
Cross-referenced witness accounts, photographs, and videos from hospitals, morgues, and graveyards reveal nightmarish violence: piles of hundreds of corpses, ice-cream trucks filled with the dead, and victims executed with gunshots to the head while still hooked up to medical equipment. One surgeon described the hospital as a 'mass casualty zone,' noting that bullets were 'designed to pass through the body.' Many doctors risked arrest by setting up informal clinics and speaking out; some have been arrested, with at least one surgeon potentially facing the death penalty.
Iranians continue to push for accountability. The reporting seeks to shed light on violence that occurred in the dark.
