At least 29 people killed during Iran protests, rights group says

At least 29 people have been killed during the last 10 days of protests across Iran, a human rights group has said.

The foreign-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that two of those confirmed killed as of Monday night were affiliated with security forces. Iranian authorities have not published an official death toll.

HRANA also said 64 protesters had been injured and 1,200 had been arrested during the unrest, which was sparked by an economic crisis and has spread to 27 of 31 provinces.

On Tuesday, videos obtained by BBC Persian showed security forces fired tear gas during clashes with protesters who chanted slogans against Iran’s clerical rulers at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar.

The protests began on 28 December, when shopkeepers took to the streets of the capital to express their anger at another sharp fall in the value of the Iranian currency against the US dollar on the open market.

The rial has sunk to a record low over the past year and inflation has soared to 40% as sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme squeeze an economy also weakened by mismanagement and corruption.

University students soon joined the protests and they began spreading to other cities.

On Friday, President Donald Trump threatened US intervention if Iranian security forces killed peaceful protesters, declaring: “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

The following day, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who has ultimate power – said that “rioters should be put in their place” and vowed not to “yield to the enemy”.

Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei echoed the comments on Monday, saying authorities would listen those who “legitimately and rightly have concerns about their livelihood” but also show no leniency towards “rioters”.

In the videos from Tuesday’s protest in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, a large crowd gathered on a covered street can be heard chanting “Death to the dictator” – a reference to Khamenei.

Later, the protesters are seen running away from a cloud of tear gas and shouting “Shameless” at a group of riot police nearby. Footage filmed from the roof of a neighbouring building shows the crowd fleeing the bazaar as more tear gas is fired.

On Monday, security forces reportedly attacked protesters who were filmed chanting the slogan “freedom, freedom, freedom” in the capital’s Cheragh Barq area.

In the central city of Najafabad, footage from Monday showed parents gathered outside a courthouse, issuing an ultimatum for the release of minors arrested in the crackdown. “We’re giving you an ultimatum,” one man warns. “Release our children, all under the age of 20, within 24 hours, or we’ll join the demonstrations too.”

Meanwhile, President Masoud Pezeshkian’s office said he had ordered the interior ministry to form a special delegation to investigate the deadly unrest in the western province of Ilam.

On Sunday night, video emerged that appeared to show security forces storming to Imam Khomeini Hospital in the predominantly Kurdish city of Ilam, where activists said wounded protesters had been sheltering.

Amnesty International said on Tuesday that it had information that Revolutionary Guards and police special forces surrounded the hospital, then “used shotguns and fired tear gas into the grounds, smashed glass doors to gain access, and beat those inside, including medical workers”.

“The Iranian security forces’ attack… violates international law and exposes yet again how far the Iranian authorities are willing to go to crush dissent,” the human rights group warned.

The US state department’s Persian-language account on X called the raid on the hospital a “clear crime against humanity”.

Kurdish human rights group Hengaw said the protesters being treated at the hospital had been wounded when security forces opened fire on a demonstration outside a government compound in neighbouring Malekshahi county on Saturday.

Hengaw said four other protesters, among them a retired Revolutionary Guards officer, were also killed in the incident. Semi-official Iranian media said three people, including a member of the security forces, were killed when “rioters” tried to enter the compound.

The protests have been the most widespread since an uprising in 2022 sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.

More than 550 people were killed and 20,000 detained in a violent crackdown on those protests by security forces, according to human rights groups.