Iran’s protest crackdown looks deadlier by the day

Iran shut off the internet and blocked communications, trying to keep the world in the dark about the deadly wave of violence it used to crush antigovernment protests.

- Benoit faucon, Margherita Stancati & Feliz Solomon

Iranians say it has taken them days to identify the bodies of kin among the people transferred to morgues.

(AFP)

Now as rights groups investigate, they say they are uncovering evidence that the death toll is far higher than they originally thought, with some projecting it will top 10,000.Initial estimates of the toll from the crackdown had put the number of deaths at a few thousand, a tally that made it the regime's deadliest assault on dissenters in decades. As human rights activists have reviewed witness accounts, field investigations, hospital records, videos and photos, they say the reality appears to be far worse.

Even at the lower end of estimates the crackdown would rank as one of the most violent deployments of state power against protesters, rights groups say, exceeding the toll of China’s 1989 move to clear Tiananmen Square of demonstrators.

"There is no doubt that the Islamic Republic has committed one of the largest mass killings of protesters of our time,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the head of the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights.

The rising number of deaths could have geopolitical significance, with the U.S. moving military assets including an aircraft carrier to the Middle East to be available for a possible strike on Iran. President Trump held off attacking Iran earlier this month, saying the country had stopped killing protesters, but said recently, “we’re watching them very closely.”

Iranian authorities have acknowledged more than 3,100 fatalities, blaming them on rioters and terrorists they say infiltrated the protests. Most of the victims were pro-government forces or innocent bystanders, they said.