A new report, quoting doctors working inside Iran, says at least 16,500 protesters have been killed and 330,000 injured during the government’s crackdown on weeks of demonstrations.
How many people have been killed in Iran’s deadly protests?
What started as protests over the economy exploded into mass outrage, with people demanding an end to the Iranian regime.
For the first time since the unrest began, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly admitted “several thousand” people have died.
He blamed the US for fueling the revolt, even accusing Donald Trump of encouraging protesters and calling him a “criminal.” Khamenei described the demonstrators as “foot soldiers” of the United States.
The Sunday Times got hold of a report from doctors inside Iran. They estimate between 16,500 and 18,000 deaths, with 330,000 to 360,000 people injured many of them under 30.
BREAKING: Videos are slowly trickling out of Iran.
The protests have not stopped.
The Iranian people will not be deterred. pic.twitter.com/wKmXKfcWkC
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) January 17, 2026
Professor Amir Parasta, an Iranian-German eye surgeon, told the paper that this time, authorities are using military-grade weapons. He’s seen gunshot and shrapnel wounds to the head, neck, and chest.
Doctors working in eight major eye hospitals and 16 emergency departments across Iran compiled these numbers. The injuries are staggering. Between 700 and 1,000 people have lost an eye. One hospital in Tehran—the Noor Clinic—has reported 7,000 eye injuries alone.
Lack of blood killed many. Hospital workers even donated their own blood to save lives, but security forces sometimes blocked transfusions.
US-based Human Rights Activists confirm 3,090 deaths
Meanwhile, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has confirmed 3,090 deaths, including 2,885 protesters, along with more than 22,000 arrests.
Professor Parasta called the Iranian government’s actions “genocide under the cover of digital darkness.” According to him, authorities have openly said they’ll keep killing until the protests stop.
Ali Khamenei takes a dig at Trump
On Saturday, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, bragged that the Islamic Republic had triumphed over the United States and Israel once again by quelling what he termed as Washington- and Tel Aviv-inspired sedition.
Talking during a speech on a religious holiday on Saturday, Khamenei described the US President Donald Trump as a criminal, blamed the United States of organizing the unrest to devour Iran, and blamed the murders and destruction in the recent riots in Iran on Trump.
Why is Iran witnessing deadly protests?
Iran began to protest about an economic crisis and inflation.
They increased into full scale protests against the Islamic Republic rule, the demonstrators hoisted slogans against Supreme Leader Khamenei and the demonstrations by the women had a significant impact on the protest, with women demonstrating by defiantly lighting cigarettes with the photo of the Supreme Leader Khamenei.
The dethroned prince emerged as one of the central inspirations of the demonstrations making speeches of further activists. The protests however died down when Iran declared the execution of the Iranian protester Erfan Soltani despite the warning by the US President Donald Trump that any execution would result in strikes.
