More than 12,000 feared dead after Iran protests, as video shows bodies lined up in morgues

Data out of Iran on Tuesday suggested that the authorities’ crackdown on two weeks of anti-government protests may have been more deadly than activists outside the country had reported. As the phones were opened to calls from inside the Islamic Republic, two sources, including one inside Iran, told CBS News on Tuesday that at least 12,000, and possibly 20,000 people had been killed.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told Parliament on Tuesday that the UK government believed “there could be 2,000 people killed, that’s a lot.

The truth has been incredibly difficult to piece together because Iran’s hardline rulers have cut off internet access and phone service in the country for the past five days. While the total internet blackout in Iran entered its fifth day, some Iranians were able to make calls outside the country on Tuesday, although it would have been impossible to enter Iran from abroad.

A source inside Iran who was able to speak told CBS News on Tuesday that activist groups working to compile a death toll from the protests, based on reports from medical officials across the country, believe the death toll to be at least 12,000, and possibly as high as 20,000.

The same source said that the security forces have been visiting many private hospitals throughout Tehran, threatening the staff that they will give them the names and addresses of those who were treated for injuries in the protest.

CBS News could not independently verify the high death toll indicated by the source, which is several times higher than the numbers reported independently by many activist groups in recent days – although those groups have always made it clear that their numbers may be underestimated.

The opposition television organization Iran International said on Tuesday that its data suggested that around 12,000 people had been killed. A source in Washington with ties to Iran told CBS News on Tuesday that a reliable source told him the number was likely between 10,000 and 12,000.

Iranian officials have not provided official estimates of total deaths from the unrest. Reuters quoted an unnamed Iranian official on Tuesday as saying that around 2,000 people have been killed since the protests began on December 28, and blamed the violence on foreign “terrorists”, even suggesting that protesters were paid to incite unrest.

CBS News has confirmed that a video posted online on Tuesday shows the bodies of at least 366 people and possibly more than 400 people who were killed during the protest in the freezing cold of Tehran. The video appears to show forensics staff documenting gruesome injuries to bodies, and crowds of people who appear to be trying to identify the dead. Physical injuries are many and include gunshot wounds, “gunshot” wounds, gunshot wounds and other serious injuries.

A new video shows badly injured bodies lined up in morgues

An Iranian activist and blogger identifying himself as Vahid Online first posted the shocking 16-minute clip. Vahid said he was sent by a source who traveled 600 kilometers to upload this video during the shutdown of communications.

The graphic video shows people with what appear to be injuries caused by bullets and shotgun pellets, as well as other wounds, and piles of bloodied clothes inside the cold room.

The protests – which have drawn warnings of US military intervention by President Trump – erupted in late December amid renewed anger over the cost of living in Iran’s sanctions-hit economy. They soon grew into large gatherings in all 31 provinces of Iran, where tens of thousands of people chanted for the downfall of the country’s Islamic rulers.

Even the small death toll reported by Cooper in Britain on Tuesday, if confirmed, would exceed any officially reported death toll in Iran’s past anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which installed the current government.

When Mr. Asked on Tuesday how many people have been killed in the protests in Iran, Trump replied, “No one has been able to give me an accurate number.”

Mr. Trump has warned several times as protests have intensified over the past week that if the Iranian regime kills protesters, the US will act, without specifying a red line that might trigger a response, or what the response might be.

President Trump tells Iranian protesters that help is on the way

“Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE YOUR CENTERS!!! Save the names of the murderers and torturers. They will pay a heavy price. I have canceled all meetings with Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protestors STOPS. HELP IS ON THE WAY,” Mr. Trump said in a social media post on Tuesday.

He also gave no details on what kind of help the US might provide in Iran’s long-delayed crackdown.

The president’s national security team was scheduled to meet at the White House on Tuesday to discuss his options, according to several sources familiar with the matter. It was not clear whether the president himself would go. He has been in short a large number of military and secret weapons could be used against Iran, in addition to regular airstrikes, according to two Pentagon officials who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity to discuss national security issues.

The attack is “worse than we can imagine”

“The information we receive shows that there is violence [against] the protests are probably worse than we can imagine,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, who heads the Norway-based activist group Iran Human Rights.

“Global red lines have been crossed,” Amiry-Moghaddam said. “We have a mechanism called the obligation to protect citizens from human rights abuses, from mass killings … and not only [the] The United States, not only President Trump, but also the European Union, in fact all countries are responsible for stopping these atrocities. “

He didn’t call for US war, but urged world powers to “give the Iranian people more ways to communicate with the world, because that’s what the regimes do – they block the Internet. Basically, it’s like solitary confinement. They put Iranians in solitary confinement and start torturing them and killing them.”

He told CBS News that his organization received a video Monday night showing the aftermath of a targeted attack by militants that killed 75 people in Mazandaran province, a three-hour drive north of Tehran. Amiry-Moghaddam said he could not share the video or the specific city where the alleged attack took place as the information “can be traced,” and that would put his sources at risk.

“This indicates that the quality has been worse than we expected,” said Amiry-Moghaddan.

Internet access and messaging services were still closed in Iran on Tuesday, leaving mostly in the area blackouts that began on the night of Jan. 8, where thousands of people appeared to heed the call of exiled Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi to make their voices heard.

The protests – and the security forces’ action against them – seemed to intensify for several days since that night.

On Tuesday, Iran’s police chief said the protests had been ordered outside the country and that “terrorists” were being paid to create unrest in Iran.

Iranians want “anyone who can remove the Islamic Republic”

Amiry-Moghaddan told CBS News that many Iranians would not believe that narrative from their leaders.

“The Iranian people are fed up with the regime, and they are desperate to get out of this system,” he said. “I remember that I used to ask many people, from different backgrounds, ‘Who would you support? And they all said that we would support whoever would remove the Islamic Republic. Iran is a country with many different types of people, different views. Some would like to have a monarchy, some are against the monarchy, but I think the best thing is to remove this regime.”

Pahlavi has said he is ready to return to lead Iran, even though he has not been there since his father, the US-backed shah, fled nearly 50 years ago amid widespread public anger over his rule. He he told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell on Monday that the Iranian people “need action.”

“The best way to ensure that there will be fewer people killed in Iran is to intervene quickly, so this regime eventually collapses and ends all the problems we are facing,” he said.

Pahlavi said he has spoken with the Trump administration, but did not reveal the details of those discussions.

Amiry-Moghaddan said the “absolute majority” of Iranians “do not want a state, like more than 80%.”

But he said 80% “divided into three groups, those who would like to have it.” [the] The son of the shah, those who oppose the monarchy, and those who have not yet made up their minds.”