Disappeared bodies, mass burials and ‘30,000 dead’: what is the truth of Iran’s death toll?
On Thursday 8 January, in a midsize Iranian town, Dr Ahmadi’s* phone began to buzz. His colleagues in local emergency wards were getting worried.
All week, people had taken to the streets and had been met by police with batons and pellet guns. With treatment, their injuries should not have been too serious. But emergency room staff believed many wounded young people were avoiding hospitals, terrified that registering as trauma patients would lead to their identification and arrest.
Quietly, Ahmadi [who remains anonymous due to fear of reprisals, but whose identity, credentials and presence within Iran during the unrest have been verified by the Guardian] and his wife began treating patients at a location outside Iran’s government hospital system. Alerted by a local whisper network, wounded young people flocked to them. Mostly, they brought superficial injuries – laceration wounds needing stitches and antibiotics. As Thursday evening wore on, more and more arrived to be patched up.
***
Their observations, shared with the Guardian and combined with accounts from morgues and graveyards across the country, begin to reveal the vast scale of violence inflicted on Iranians during the state’s crackdown. Ahmadi and his colleagues are hesitant to provide a figure for the toll but agree “all publicly cited death tolls represent a severe underestimation”. Comparing the number of dead they witnessed with hospital baselines, they estimate it could exceed 30,000, far surpassing official figures. This is based on the conclusion that “officially registered deaths related to the crackdown likely represent less than 10% of the real number of fatalities”.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/27/iran-protests-death-toll-disappeared-bodies-mass-burials-30000-dead
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