Report: Iranian Doctors Say 16,500 Killed And Over 300,000 Injured In Crackdown

A report published by The Sunday Times, citing testimony and data from Iranian doctors working inside the country, says at least 16,500 people have been killed and more than 300,000 injured during the regime’s violent crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests.

The findings, compiled from hospital records and eyewitness accounts provided by medical professionals, describe what doctors called an unprecedented level of force, with most casualties occurring over just two days amid a near-total communications blackout imposed by authorities.

The report gathered data from eight major eye hospitals and 16 emergency departments across Iran. The report was assembled using information transmitted via satellite internet connections after authorities shut down nationwide access earlier this month. Physicians say the blackout has made independent verification difficult and has allowed the crackdown to unfold largely unseen by the outside world.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on state television that “several thousands” had been killed since the protests began, blaming demonstrators for the violence and accusing them of acting on behalf of foreign powers. The doctors’ report directly contradicts that assessment, pointing instead to widespread use of military-grade weapons by security forces.

Medical professionals involved in compiling the figures told the Times a large proportion of those killed and wounded were under the age of 30.

Hospitals have documented thousands of severe eye injuries, with estimates that at least 700 to 1,000 people have lost an eye. One major eye clinic in Tehran alone reportedly recorded around 7,000 eye injuries.

Doctors told the Times the true toll is likely far higher, as many wounded protesters avoid hospitals for fear of arrest, and bodies have been removed from streets and buried in other cities to obscure the scale of the killings. In some cases, families were allegedly forced to pay large sums to retrieve the bodies of relatives.

Protests began in late December over economic collapse and rapidly escalated into nationwide demonstrations demanding regime change. Crowds spread across all 31 provinces, drawing in students and young people in particular. Security forces responded with mass arrests, live fire, and sweeping operations by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and allied militias.

While streets in many cities have since fallen quiet, activists and medical sources say the scale of deaths and injuries marks a turning point. They warn that the reported figures represent only the minimum number of casualties so far and that the full human cost may not be known for months, if ever, as Iran remains largely cut off from the outside world.