Iran releases protest toll, says 3,117 killed in ‘foreign-backed’ terrorism

TEHRAN: Iran on Wednesday put the protest death toll at 3,117, terming the unrest “foreign-backed acts of terrorism” and declaring 2,427 Iranians, including civilians and security personnel, as martyrs.

Demonstrations and strikes initially sparked by economic grievances turned into a mass movement against the present leadership that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution, with people pouring onto the streets in mass protests for several days from January 8.

However, the protests appear for now to have petered out in the face of what activists describe as a crackdown under the cover of a blanket internet shutdown.

The Iranian authorities have condemned the protest wave as a “terrorist” incident characterised by violent “riots” fuelled by the United States.

In the first official toll from the authorities, a statement by Iran’s foundation for veterans and martyrs, cited by state television, said a total of 3,117 people were killed during protests.

Of these, 2,427 people, including members of the security forces, were declared “martyrs”, with the statement calling them “innocent” victims.

The official toll was also posted by the Iranian Embassy in Islamabad in its X post, labelling the protests as “foreign-backed acts of terrorism” which claimed thousands of lives.

“The 690 people who are not among the martyrs are terrorists, rioters, and those who attacked military sites,” Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian, secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, told state TV.

He said the high number of “martyrs” showed “restraint and tolerance of the security forces” during protests.

‘No turning back’

In a bid to show the damage caused by the protests, Tehran municipality on Wednesday showed journalists on an escorted official tour roughly a dozen charred buses lined up in the parking lot of a bus depot in the capital.

A key protagonist in the protest movement was Reza Pahlavi, the son of the ousted shah. The US-based Pahlavi called for nightly protests and said he was ready to return to Iran.

In a rare interview, his mother, the former empress Farah Pahlavi, told AFP from her home in Paris in written answers to questions that there was “no turning back” after the wave of protests.

US President Donald Trump has never ruled out military action over the crackdown, although expectations of a swift American response have now receded.

Iranian General Abolfazl Shekarchi, the spokesman of the Iranian armed forces, warned Trump that Tehran would attack him if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was targeted.

In a News Nation interview that aired Tuesday, Trump responded: “I have very firm instructions. Anything happens, they’re going to wipe them off the face of this earth.”