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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/world/middleeast/iran-protester-deaths.html
"Shoot to Kill": Accounts of Brutal Crackdown Emerge from Iran
(New York Times) Erika Solomon - Iranian authorities are waging one of their deadliest crackdowns on unrest in more than a decade. Eyewitnesses say government forces have begun opening fire with automatic weapons and, at times, indiscriminately on unarmed protesters. In footage aired on Iranian state television, a morgue official stands amid body bags. A senior Iranian health ministry official said about 3,000 people had been killed, including hundreds of security officers. Witnesses spoke of seeing snipers positioned on rooftops in downtown Tehran firing into crowds. One emergency room treated 19 gunshot patients in a single hour. In the past week, the smaller demonstrations in city markets and universities exploded into a broader popular movement, with throngs of protesters filling major city squares and rural town centers alike. Now Iranian officials have begun to talk of them being taken over by foreign agents loyal to its enemies, the U.S. and Israel. A video dated Jan. 9 and verified by The Times showed security forces firing a hail of bullets at protesters in eastern Tehran. A Tehran resident said he had witnessed security forces open a barrage of gunfire with machine guns into a crowd of young men and women in the Sattarkhan neighborhood. They dropped to the ground on top of one another, he said.