Media: Iran death toll may reach 20,000 as crackdown intensifies

Emerging accounts from Iran on January 13 indicated that the authorities’ effort to end more than two weeks of nationwide anti-government demonstrations may have resulted in a significantly higher death toll than previously reported by activists abroad.

As limited telephone connectivity from inside the country briefly resumed, two sources — including one based in Iran — told CBS News that at least 12,000 people, and potentially up to 20,000, have been killed.

In the U.K., Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told Parliament on Tuesday that the British government believed there “may have been 2,000 people killed, there have been more. My fear is that the number may prove to be significantly higher.”

Reliable information from Iran has been exceedingly difficult to obtain after the authorities imposed a near-total communications blackout. Internet access has been offline for five consecutive days, and while some Iranians were able to place outgoing phone calls on Tuesday, incoming international calls remained impossible.

A source inside Iran who managed to call out told CBS News that activist networks compiling nationwide casualty data — relying on reports from medical personnel in various provinces — estimate the number of deaths at no fewer than 12,000, and possibly as high as 20,000. According to this source, security forces have been visiting numerous private hospitals in Tehran, pressuring medical staff to surrender the names and addresses of individuals being treated for protest-related injuries.

CBS News has not independently verified these figures, which far exceed the death tolls reported by activist groups in recent days. Those groups have repeatedly cautioned that their estimates are likely substantial undercounts due to the communications blackout and risks faced by informants.

Separately, Iran International, the opposition television network, reported Tuesday that its information also points to roughly 12,000 deaths. A Washington-based source with contacts inside Iran told CBS News that a credible informant placed the toll between 10,000 and 12,000.

Iranian authorities have not released consistent or comprehensive casualty numbers. Reuters reported on Tuesday that an unnamed Iranian official stated that about 2,000 people had been killed since the protests began on December 28, attributing the violence to foreign-backed “terrorists” and claiming, without evidence, that provocateurs had been paid to incite unrest.

CBS News has verified video posted online Tuesday showing the bodies of at least 366 people — and likely more than 400 — stacked inside a morgue in a suburb of Tehran. The footage appears to depict forensic workers documenting severe injuries, while crowds attempt to identify the dead. Visible injuries include gunshot wounds, shotgun “birdshot,” deep lacerations, and other extensive trauma.

The demonstrations, which prompted warnings of potential U.S. military action from President Trump, were initially triggered in late December by public anger over a sharp rise in living costs amid Iran’s sanctions-strained economy. They rapidly escalated into mass protests across all 31 provinces, with tens of thousands of demonstrators calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic’s leadership.

Even the lower estimate cited by Cooper, if validated, would exceed the casualty figures officially acknowledged for any protest wave in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

When asked on Tuesday how many people had been killed, President Trump replied: “Nobody’s been able to give me an accurate number.”

Throughout last week, as the unrest worsened, Trump repeatedly warned that the U.S. would act if Iranian authorities killed protesters — though he did not specify what threshold would trigger a response or what form such action might take.

By Tamilla Hasanova