An Iranian official said authorities have verified that at least 5,000 people were killed during nationwide protests that erupted late last year, offering one of the starkest acknowledgments yet of the scale of violence surrounding one of the deadliest crackdowns in the Islamic Republic’s history.
Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter on Sunday, the official said the death toll included roughly 500 members of Iran’s security forces.
He blamed most civilian deaths on what he described as “terrorists and armed rioters,” accusing them of deliberately targeting “innocent Iranians” during weeks of unrest.
According to the official, the heaviest clashes and the highest number of deaths were concentrated in Iran’s northwestern Kurdish-populated regions.
Those areas have long been among the most volatile in the country, marked by historically harsh security responses.
