More than 2,000 people have been killed during the violent crackdown by security forces on protests in Iran, a human rights group has said, as President Trump promised Iranians that help was “on its way”.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that it had so far confirmed the killing of 1,850 protesters, 135 people affiliated with the government and nine uninvolved civilians as well as nine children over the last 17 days despite an internet blackout.
An Iranian official also told Reuters that 2,000 people had been killed but that “terrorists” were to blame.
Trump will attend a meeting about Iran on Tuesday evening, and has pledged to get “accurate ” death toll figures.
“The killing looks like it’s significant, but we don’t know yet for certain,” Trump told reporters while returning to the White House.
Once he has the numbers, he said, “we’ll act accordingly.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that Iranian authorities would “pay a big price” for the killings, and urged people to “keep protesting”.
“I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!!,” he added, using the acronym for a US-based Iranian opposition slogan, “Make Iran Great Again”.
Trump has been weighing military and other options in response to the crackdown, having already announced 25% tariffs on any country trading with Iran.
The protests, which have reportedly spread to 180 cities and towns in all 31 provinces, were sparked by anger over the collapse of the Iranian currency and soaring cost of living.
They quickly widened into demands for political change and became one of the most serious challenges to the clerical establishment since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The protests escalated significantly last Thursday and were met with deadly force by authorities, masked by a near total shutdown of the internet and communication services.
HRANA said on Tuesday afternoon that, as well as confirming the killing of at least 2,003 people during the unrest, it was also reviewing reports of another 779 deaths.
“We’re horrified, but we still think the number is conservative,” Deputy Director Skylar Thompson told the Associated Press.
Another group, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), meanwhile said it had confirmed the killing of at least 734 protesters.
Its director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, told AFP news agency that the figures were “based on information received from fewer than half of the country’s provinces and fewer than 10% of Iran’s hospitals”, adding: “The real number of those killed is likely in the thousands.”
Reuters said the unnamed Iranian official who put the death toll at about 2,000 had not given a breakdown of the figure. However, it added, he said “terrorists” were behind the deaths of both protesters and security personnel.
It is difficult to gauge the true scale of bloodshed because, like other international news organisations, the BBC is not able to report from inside the country.
However, videos posted online on Sunday showed people searching for the bodies of their loved ones at the Kahrizak Forensic Centre in Tehran. The BBC counted at least 180 shrouded bodies and body bags in the footage.
Around 50 bodies were visible in another video from the facility shared on Monday.
“My friend went there [Kahrizak] to look for his brother, and he forgot his own sorrow,” an activist told BBC Persian on Monday.
“They piled up bodies from every neighbourhood, like Saadatabad, Naziabad, Sattarkhan. So you go to your address pile and search there. You don’t know a fraction of the level of violence that’s been used.”
Hospitals in the capital have also reportedly been overwhelmed by the number of casualties.
Prof Shahram Kordasti, an Iranian oncologist based in London, told the BBC’s Newsday programme on Tuesday that the last message he had received from a colleague in Tehran said: “In most hospitals, it’s like a warzone. We are short of supplies, short of blood.”
Other doctors at “two to three hospitals” had also said they had treated hundreds of injured or dead people, he added.
An Iranian living in Rasht, near the Caspian Sea coast, described the city as unrecognisable. “Everywhere is burnt with fire,” they said.
