Iran’s Claim That 200 People Died In Unrest Raises Eyebrows

An Iranian security body claims that 200 people have lost their lives during 11 weeks of nationwide protests, a considerably smaller toll than that provided by foreign-based human rights groups.

The Interior Ministry’s Security Council said in a statement on December 3 that those killed include security forces, “rioters,” and separatists, as well as victims of “terrorist acts” and attacks by foreign-affiliated groups.

The statement comes days after a top general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said more than 300 people had been “martyred and killed” during the unrest.

Meanwhile, the activist HRANA news agency reported on December 3 that at least 469 people have been killed, including 64 under 18s.

The IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency recently published a confidential bulletin saying that the number of people killed in the ongoing demonstrations is higher than the death toll of the November 2019 protests."

The government has not published the official number of victims of the state crackdown on the 2019 protests sparked by fuel price hikes, but Reuters reports 1,500 were killed by security forces.

IranWire has independently confirmed the identity of 241 victims of the current crackdown on anti-government protests.

Most of them were aged under 25 years, and they include at least 46 children aged between 15 and 17.