Iranian doctors say death toll over 16K as regime cracks down on protests: ‘Genocide under the cover of digital darkness’

The Iranian regime has killed at least 16,500 people and injured over 330,000 more as they continue to ruthlessly target demonstrators – and even uninvolved civilians – in nationwide anti-government protests, a shocking new report claims.

The alarming death toll – far exceeding the roughly 3,100 verified by activist groups – was detailed in a new report from doctors on the ground treating victims amid the slaughter, the Sunday Times reported.

The disturbing figures, compiled from eight major hospitals and 16 emergency departments, revealed between 16,500 and 18,000 people have been killed, with most victims believed to be younger than 30. 

“This is a whole new level of brutality,” Professor Amir Parasta, an Iranian-German eye surgeon, who spoke to the outlet on behalf of dozens of medical professionals in Tehran.

“[In 2022] they were using rubber bullets and pellet guns taking out eyes. This time they are using military-grade weapons and what we are seeing are gunshot and shrapnel wounds in the head, neck and chest,” he continued.

“I’ve spoken to dozens of doctors on the ground and they are really shocked and crying. These are surgeons who have seen war.”

Another 330,000 to 360,000 have been injured, including children and pregnant women, according to the report.

At least 1,000 people have lost an eye, with one hospital in Tehran reporting 7,000 eye injuries.

“There are so many shotgun-related eye injuries that we do not know whom to treat first,” said one ophthalmologist, the outlet reported.

The protests, which exploded on Dec. 28, spread rapidly across all 31 provinces, morphing from demonstrations over a collapsing economy into the most serious threat to Iran’s clerical rulers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The regime answered with overwhelming force, deploying the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Basij militia to crush the unrest, according to rights groups and witness accounts.

As the killings mounted, authorities imposed a near-total internet blackout on Jan. 8, plunging Iran into digital darkness for more than eight days — a move widely seen as an effort to hide the massacre and prevent images from spreading outside of the country.

“This is genocide under the cover of digital darkness,” Parasta told the Times.

“They said they would kill us until this stops and that’s what they are doing.”

Graphic footage that surfaced despite the shutdown showed rows of bodies piled inside and outside morgues, including at Tehran’s Kahrizak forensic center, as desperate families searched for missing relatives amid threats and intimidation.

One person who fled Iran told the outlet that the IRGC “sprayed everyone with gunfire” one night and were “calmly trying to aim for people’s heads.”

“Snipers on rooftops were shooting people in the back of the head,” another person recalled.

Doctors indicated that many victims have died because of a critical shortage of blood, the outlet reported.

Despite medical staff across multiple hospitals donating blood to save lives, security forces have blocked the transfusions in certain cases.

“We fight for hours to save lives, only to lose patients because they are not allowed to receive blood transfusions,” one Tehran surgeon said.

The carnage is causing conflict with the US, as President Trump ordered the Pentagon to prepare military strike options after reports that Iran was planning mass executions.

The White House abruptly pulled back when Tehran reportedly paused the hangings.