Warning: The following story contains graphic details of violence which some readers might find upsetting.
A BBC News Persian analysis of hundreds of videos and photographs taken during recent protests in Iran confirms the security forces' use of a wide range of weaponry, including machine guns, sniper rifles, and shotguns.
Protesters were reportedly killed in many of the more than 200 cities where protests had been recorded. While the exact death toll remains unclear, the level of brutality and the deployment of lethal weaponry evidenced in pictures, witness accounts, and reports by human rights groups and the media show thousands have been killed across the country.
The crackdown on protests—which began over the economy but rapidly escalated—employed a level of violence unprecedented in modern Iranian history.
“This is the largest mass killing in contemporary Iranian history and one of the largest in the world,” Payam Akhavan, an Iranian Canadian former UN prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, told BBC News Persian.
The Iranian government has blamed the killings on ‘rioters and terrorists’.
But BBC News Persian analysis shows security forces used a number of different weapons on protesters, including:
- machine guns
- sniper rifles
- assault rifles
- shotguns
- handguns
- pellet-firing paintball guns
- tear gas
- machetes
- knives
- batons
- large wooden clubs
- green laser sights and pointers (for blinding and targeting)
Footage from cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, Yazdanshahr, and Shahsavar, verified by BBC News Persian, shows both heavy—such as the DShK—and medium—such as the PK—machine guns mounted on military pickup trucks. The security forces reportedly used these for crowd control and to impose a state of siege.
Videos of the protests show protesters coming under sustained machine-gun fire, as well as the alarming presence of snipers positioned to target individuals during the unrest.
The widespread misuse of shotguns among the police has led to numerous casualties, with hundreds suffering permanent injuries from metal pellets.
Graphic accounts and verified images depict not only fatalities from gunfire but also brutal attacks with knives and machetes, further demonstrating the violent measures employed by security forces against the demonstrators.
The overwhelming evidence raises crucial questions about human rights violations and the need for accountability concerning the Iranian government's deadly response to peaceful protests.
