By Gloria Ogbonna
New investigative reporting paints a harrowing picture of what may be one of the deadliest short-term mass killings in modern history, as Iran’s Islamic Republic allegedly slaughtered tens of thousands of its own citizens during a two-day crackdown ordered directly by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
According to multiple investigations published Sunday, as many as 36,500 Iranians were killed after Khamenei commanded security forces to crush nationwide protests “by any means necessary,” unleashing violence so extreme that wounded civilians were reportedly executed inside hospitals and morgues.
The protests began on December 28, initially sparked by merchant strikes in Tehran amid economic collapse, runaway inflation, and years of political repression.
What started as localized demonstrations quickly spread nationwide, evolving into one of the most significant challenges to the Islamic Republic in decades.
The regime’s response, according to newly released evidence, was swift, coordinated, and devastating.
Among the most chilling revelations, The Media Line reported testimony indicating that Iranian security forces placed wounded protesters—many still alive—into body bags, transported them to forensic facilities, and executed anyone who showed signs of life.
The outlet cited documentation from the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, including the account of a young protester who survived by pretending to be dead inside a body bag.
The survivor reportedly lay motionless for three days, hearing gunshots as wounded civilians who moaned or moved were executed. He escaped only after desperate families stormed the facility searching for missing relatives.
Medical professionals provided similarly disturbing accounts. A forensic medicine specialist in Tehran told The Media Line that hospitals became scenes of terror, with wounded protesters stacked atop one another in corridors, removed alive from treatment areas, and transferred directly to morgues. Bodies were reportedly found with oxygen tubes, ECG leads, IV lines, and catheters still attached evidence, healthcare workers said, that patients were taken mid-treatment and either left to die or deliberately executed.
The outlet also obtained a message from a nurse who warned that wounded patients were being systematically killed, including individuals taken straight from operating rooms and shot at close range. According to the report, that message was sent shortly before the nurse herself was killed.
Separate classified intelligence materials reviewed by Iran International indicate that the regime launched its most violent phase of the crackdown on January 8 and 9, deploying Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Basij forces across more than 400 cities and towns.
Over 4,000 confrontation sites were reported nationwide as authorities abandoned crowd-control tactics and switched to live ammunition.
To conceal the scope of the violence, the regime imposed a near-total communications blackout, cutting internet access, mobile networks, and external lines of contact.
According to the classified materials, senior commanders were briefed immediately after a January 9 speech by Khamenei. Following that address, orders were issued invoking phrases such as “victory through terror” and directing forces to eradicate what the regime labeled “sedition” effectively authorizing unrestricted lethal force against demonstrators.
Initial internal death tolls compiled in the immediate aftermath cited at least 12,000 killed, according to an IRGC Intelligence Organization assessment submitted to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and the presidential office on January 11. But those figures rose sharply in subsequent internal updates.
Documents later provided to parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee listed 27,500 deaths. Interior Ministry consolidations pushed the number beyond 30,000, while later IRGC intelligence reports dated January 22 and January 24 cited more than 33,000 and over 36,500 deaths, respectively, according to officials familiar with the data.
Most alarming were indications of systematic extrajudicial executions. Iran International reported morgue images showing victims shot in the head while still connected to medical equipment, evidence that medical experts described as deliberate “finishing shots.”
Doctors and nurses told investigators that security forces entered hospitals, removed wounded protesters mid-treatment, and in some cases executed patients on site or inside ambulances.
A separate, extensive investigation by The New York Times corroborated many of these findings, reconstructing the crackdown through hundreds of verified videos and interviews with witnesses, medical workers, and grieving families many speaking under threat of reprisal.
The Times reported that following Khamenei’s directive, security forces fired sustained gunfire from rooftops and police stations, deployed motorcycle units to chase fleeing crowds, and shot demonstrators often from behind across neighborhoods in Tehran and at least 19 cities nationwide.
Hospitals were overwhelmed, emergency rooms operated under battlefield conditions, and Tehran’s Kahrizak Forensic Center overflowed with bodies. Families were forced to identify loved ones from numbered photographs displayed on screens.
Verified footage showed body bags lining hospital entrances, wounded protesters bleeding in the streets, and rows of corpses laid out in morgue courtyards some still bearing signs of recent medical care.
Further underscoring the scale of the massacre, TIME magazine cited two senior Iranian Health Ministry officials who said as many as 30,000 people may have been killed in just 48 hours. Morgues reportedly ran out of space, body-bag supplies were exhausted, and tractor-trailers were used to transport the dead.
Hospital-based tallies shared with TIME recorded 30,304 deaths as of January 9, with officials warning the true number is likely higher due to victims taken to military hospitals or buried outside official channels during the blackout.
Experts consulted by TIME struggled to find historical parallels, concluding that the only comparable event in mass-killing records was the Babyn Yar massacre, when Nazi forces executed approximately 33,000 Jews by gunfire over two days in 1941.
Additional testimony from Israel Hayom cited an Iranian citizen who claimed regime forces used mortar shells in smaller cities—an allegation that cannot be independently verified but aligns with multiple accounts of rapidly escalating firepower.
The human toll was further illuminated by a first-person account in The Guardian, in which an anonymous Iranian surgeon described hospitals transformed into mass-casualty zones.
“I have worked in disaster zones,” the surgeon wrote. “Nothing compares to the nightmare I saw in Iran’s hospitals when the state started shooting protesters pools of blood, hundreds of gunshots, no pause, no limits.”
Despite the mounting evidence, Iranian officials—led by Khamenei have publicly acknowledged only 3,117 deaths, blaming foreign “terrorist cells” and accusing the United States and Israel of orchestrating the unrest. Investigators warn the true death toll may never be fully known, citing body concealment, pressure on families, secret burials, and chaos in corpse registration during the blackout.
The revelations come as international pressure on Tehran intensifies. Last week, President Donald Trump called for “new leadership” in Iran, while Iranian officials warned that any move against the supreme leader would trigger “all-out war.”
On Friday, Trump said a U.S. “armada” was moving toward the region “just in case,” as military assets repositioned and sanctions expanded against regime-linked financial networks.
Taken together, the reports depict a state-orchestrated massacre of staggering scale one that may rank among the darkest chapters of political violence in the 21st century and raises profound questions about accountability, international response, and the future of Iran under Khamenei’s rule.
Source. REIT art
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