Iran‘s clerical regime stands accused of unleashing its bloodiest crackdown in nearly half a century after a new medical report claimed at least 16,500 protesters have been killed and more than 300,000 wounded in just three weeks of unrest.
The findings directly contradict the first public admission by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who yesterday acknowledged that ‘several thousands’ had died since the demonstrations erupted.
In a televised address, he shifted blame onto the protesters themselves, branding them foreign-backed agitators and insisting the violence was provoked by armed ‘rioters’.
But doctors inside Iran have painted a far darker picture, according to a new medical report seen by The Times. Medical staff say the nature of the injuries shows a chilling escalation by the authorities.
Where previous protests were met with rubber bullets and pellet guns, doctors now report extensive gunshot and shrapnel wounds to the head, neck, and chest, consistent with military-grade weapons.
‘This is a whole new level of brutality,’ said Professor Amir Parasta, an Iranian-German eye surgeon who helped coordinate the doctors’ report.
‘This is genocide under the cover of digital darkness,’ Parasta added. ‘They said they would kill until this stops, and that’s what they are doing’.
Data compiled from eight major eye hospitals and 16 emergency departments suggest between 16,500 and 18,000 people have been killed and up to 360,000 injured, including children and pregnant women.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday claimed that ‘several thousands’ had died since the demonstrations erupted
Protesters set fire to a car in Tehran. Even by the regime’s own estimates, between two to three thousand have been killed, making it one of the greatest massacres in the Islamic Republic’s history
Families and residents gather at the Kahrizak Coroner’s Office confronting rows of body bags as they search for relatives killed during the regime’s violent crackdown on nationwide protests
However, this data has not been independently confirmed, though US-based right group, HRANA, has estimated that 3,000 people have been killed in the protests.
According to testimony gathered from medics across the country, the vast majority of deaths and injuries occurred during just two days of what one source described as ‘utter slaughter’, marking the most ferocious use of force by the Islamic Republic since its founding 47 years ago.
Victims are overwhelmingly young. Many are believed to be under 30, with social media flooded by tributes to students, athletes, and artists whose lives were cut short.
Among the dead are a 23-year-old fashion designer, three young footballers – including a 17-year-old youth team captain in Tehran – a 21-year-old champion basketball player, a budding film director, and a student who had dreamed of studying for a doctorate at Bristol University.
The Iranian authorities have not responded to the claims, which, if confirmed, would represent one of the deadliest crackdowns on civilian protest in modern history.
Parasta said colleagues on the ground were becoming traumatised by what they were witnessing, despite many having experience treating war casualties.
Communications with the outside world have been severed since the regime shut down the internet earlier this month, forcing doctors and activists to rely on smuggled Starlink satellite terminals to transmit evidence.
Using the technology is illegal and dangerous, with Revolutionary Guard units reportedly hunting for the dishes.
It comes after Khamenei yesterday acknowledged that thousands of people were killed during recent anti-government protests – some in an ‘inhuman, savage manner’.
‘Those linked to Israel and US caused massive damage and killed several thousands’, Khamenei said in a speech broadcast on state television on Saturday, as his supporters chanted ‘death to America, death to England’.
A new medical report claimed at least 16,500 protesters have been killed and more than 300,000 wounded in just three weeks of unrest
Posting on X, Khamenei said: ‘We find the US President guilty due to the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted upon the Iranian nation’
Protesters set fire to makeshift barricades near a religious centre on January 10, 2026
He accused US President Donald Trump of direct involvement in the unrest, branding the US president a ‘criminal’ and claiming he had personally intervened in what he described as a foreign-backed ‘sedition’.
‘We consider the US president guilty, both for the casualties, for the damages, and for the slander he made against the Iranian nation.
‘The nature of the sedition, this sedition was American, it was clear. The Americans planned and acted.
‘The aim of the Americans – and I am stating this clearly and unequivocally with forty-odd years of experience in the Islamic Republic – is to swallow Iran.’
Attendees can then be heard chanting: ‘Death to America, death to America, death to America’.
Khamenei went on to say that Iran would avoid wider war but warned that those he blamed for the unrest – including the US and Israel – would face consequences.
‘In the past,’ he said, ‘when sedition like this occurred in the country, which we had, we had numerous seditions; it was often the American press, second-rate politicians from America or European countries who interfered.’
‘Death to America, death to England, death to traitors, death to Israel,’ attendees chanted back.
Khamenei doubled down on his accusations in a post on X, writing: ‘We find the US President guilty due to the casualties, damages, and slander he inflicted upon the Iranian nation.’
In response, Trump called for an end to Ayatollah Khamenei’s nearly 40-year reign.
Iranian demonstrators gather in a street during a protest over the collapse of the currency’s value, in Tehran on January 8, 2026
‘The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,’ Trump told Politico in an interview on Saturday.
‘His country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership. It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran.’
In recent days, Trump had told protesting Iranians that ‘help is on the way’ and that his administration would ‘act accordingly’ if the killing of demonstrators continued or if Iranian authorities executed detained protesters.
In his speech, Khamenei said rioters were armed with live ammunition that was imported from abroad, without naming any countries.
‘We do not plan, we do not take the country toward war. But we do not release domestic offenders. Worse than domestic offenders, there are international offenders. We do not let them alone either,’ the Iranian leader said.
