IRANIAN state television has released the first official death toll from the recent antigovernment protests that engulfed the country, reporting that 3,117 people were killed during the crackdown.
In a statement carried by Press TV on Wednesday, Iran’s Martyrs Foundation said that 2,427 of those killed in the demonstrations were civilians and security forces.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has said 4,519 were killed during the wave of demonstrations, including 4,251 protesters, 197 security personnel, 35 people aged under 18 and 38 bystanders who it says were neither protesters nor security personnel.
HRANA also said 9,049 additional deaths were under review.
The demonstrations, which began in late December with shopkeepers protesting against the sliding value of the currency and the cost of living, escalated into a widespread antigovernment movement.
Iranian authorities condemned the protests as a “terrorist” incident and claimed that the violent “riots” were fuelled by the US.
The government crackdown was widely condemned, with US President Donald Trump threatening to intervene in support of the protesters.
Some rights groups have said that protesters were killed by direct fire from the security forces.
In a report, Amnesty International said it had documented Iranian security forces positioned on streets and rooftops, firing rifles and shotguns loaded with metal pellets, often aimed at unarmed individuals’ heads and torsos.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal that Tehran would not hold back if attacked, but called for “respect” for Iran.
“Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025 … our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” he said.
“An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House. It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe,” Araghchi added.
Trump, in an interview with News Nation on Tuesday, warned that Iran would be wiped “off the face of this earth” if it ever successfully assassinated the president.
“I have very firm instructions. Anything happens, they’re going to wipe them off the face of this earth,” Trump said in a News Nation interview that aired on Tuesday.
Last week, several Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman, were reported to have lobbied Trump not to attack Iran after he threatened to act in response to the crackdown.