Mass killings reported as security forces use fire on Iran protesters

In Iran, anti-government protesters filled the streets of capital  Tehran on Saturday night, as protesters pressed the biggest movement against the Islamic republic in more than three years despite a deadly crackdown under cover of an internet blackout. Meanwhile, Iran's security forces are using lethal force against protesters nationwide. As per Iran International outlet report,preliminary estimates pointing to mass casualties as a sweeping crackdown unfolds amid a near-total internet shutdown. A report from Kahrizak, south of Tehran, several dead bodies were kept in body bags.Two eyewitnesses who visited Kahrizak in search of their loved ones told Iran International that they saw more than 400 bodies there. On Friday alone, 44 bodies were transferred to Madani Hospital in Karaj and 36 to Ghaem Hospital in Karaj. Medical sources in other cities also reported a high number of fatalities.The most conservative estimates indicate that at least 2,000 people have been killed over the past 48 hours. A doctor in the northern city of Rasht told Iran International that one hospital alone received at least 70 bodies.

Islamic Republic security forces firing on Iranian protesters during January 2026 protests#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/ROqSKlP6Lw

— حافظه تاریخی (@hafezeh_tarikhi) January 10, 2026

The death toll in the protests has grown to at least 116 and over 2,600 others detained, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. Crowds gathered again on Saturday in the north of the Iranian capital, setting off fireworks and banging pots as they shouted slogans in support of the ousted monarchy. The two weeks of demonstrations have posed one of the biggest challenges to the theocratic authorities who have ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, although supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has expressed defiance and blamed the United States.Iranian state TV is reporting on security force casualties while portraying control over the nation, without discussing dead demonstrators, whom it increasingly refers to as “terrorists.” Tehran’s mayor, Alireza Zakani, said protesters in the capital had set fire to dozens of buses and public buildings, branding them “terrorists” while omitting that many of those buses are routinely used to transport detainees.