Medical professionals in Iran have reported that the death toll from the state's crackdown on protesters could exceed 30,000, far surpassing official figures. Testimony from doctors, morgue staff and graveyard workers reveals a systematic effort by authorities to conceal the scale of the violence.
Dr Ahmadi, an anonymous medic whose identity has been verified, treated wounded protesters in a secret location outside the government hospital system. He described a sudden escalation from superficial injuries to close-range gunshots and severe stab wounds, with more than 40 fatalities in his small town alone. Ahmadi assembled a network of over 80 medical professionals across 12 provinces to document the violence.
The Iranian government has acknowledged more than 3,000 deaths, while HRANA, a US-based rights group, has verified over 6,000 and is investigating a further 17,000, suggesting a possible total of around 22,000. However, Ahmadi and his colleagues believe that officially registered deaths represent less than 10% of the real number, estimating the true toll could exceed 30,000.
Witnesses describe bodies being transported in ice-cream vans and meat trucks, with piles of corpses hastily buried. At one morgue, staff were overwhelmed by trucks loaded with bodies; when they protested, two trucks were moved but never arrived at any major forensic facility, raising suspicions of mass burials. A doctor in Tehran said: 'I am on the verge of a psychological collapse. They've mass murdered people.'
