Iran has admitted at least 5,000 people were killed when the regime unleashed a brutal crackdown on mass protests.
The death toll was confirmed by authorities in the Islamic Republic, with a government official saying at least 500 of those killed were security personnel.
The official, who spoke on a basis of anonymity, told Reuters ‘terrorists and armed rioters’ had killed ‘innocent Iranians’, and said some of the most violent clashes and the highest number of deaths were in the Iranian Kurdish areas in northwest Iran.
‘The final toll is not expected to increase sharply,’ the official said.
The admission comes as the Iranian government threatened to go ahead with the execution of people detained during the unrest.
‘A series of actions have been identified as Mohareb, which is among the most severe Islamic punishments,’ Iranian judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir told a press conference on Sunday.
Mohareb, an Islamic legal term meaning to wage war against God, is punishable by death under Iranian law.
The warning by Iranian authorities comes after the country’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, said last week that ‘there is no plan for hanging at all’ in an interview with Fox News. ‘Hanging is out of the question,’ he said, seemingly bowing to pressure from Donald Trump.
Protesters set fire to a car in Tehran. Iranian authorities have admitted around 5,000 have been killed in the unrest, 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
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 US president had told protesting Iranians that his administration would ‘act accordingly’ if the killing of demonstrators continued or if Iranian authorities executed detained protesters.
Trump’s warnings came as Iranian authorities prepared to execute clothes shop owner, Erfan Soltani.
The 26-year-old became the first protester in the latest Iranian uprising to be handed the death sentence, with his family pleading for Trump to intervene ahead of his scheduled execution last Wednesday.
But Tehran seemingly heeded the President’s warning after Erfan’s family said his execution had been postponed.
Hours after the climbdown, Trump said he had been told ‘on good authority’ that plans for executions had stopped, even as Tehran has signalled fast trials and executions ahead in its crackdown on protesters.
It also comes after a new medical report claimed that at least 16,500 protesters have been killed, and more than 300,000 wounded in just three weeks of unrest.
The report, seen by The Times, was compiled by doctors inside Iran and paints a far darker picture of the chilling escalation by authorities in the Islamic Republic.
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.
Clothes shop owner Erfan Soltani made headlines last week when he was sentenced to death atfter being detained during a protest. Iranian authorities have since postponed his execution following international pressure
Iranian demonstrators gather in a street during a protest over the collapse of the currency’s value, in Tehran on January 8, 2026
Protesters set fire to makeshift barricades near a religious centre on January 10, 2026
‘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.
Separately, human rights organisation Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) said more than 3,400 people have been killed by Iranian security forces since the outbreak of protests at the end of December.
The protests began on December 28 over the fall in value of the currency and have grown into wider demonstrations and calls for the fall of a clerical establishment.
Iran’s authorities have taken a dual approach, cracking down while also calling protests over economic problems legitimate.
So far, there are no signs of fracture in the security elite that could bring down the clerical system in power since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Britain, France, Germany and Italy all summoned Iranian ambassadors in protest over the crackdown.