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Explosions Reported Across Iran Amid Rising Tensions

Sia Rajabi
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Explosions Reported Across Iran Amid Rising Tensions

As the United States has increased its military presence in the region and the likelihood of an imminent war has risen, numerous reports have emerged of several explosions in different parts of Iran on Saturday, January 31.

Videos published on social media show columns of smoke rising in the cities of Qom, Parand, and Bandar Abbas.

There have also been unconfirmed reports of explosions in Tabriz, Shahriar, and Saveh.

In Bandar Abbas, the director general of crisis management for Hormozgan Province reported an explosion in a residential home and announced that the incident has so far left 14 injured and one dead.

While official media outlets of Iran’s regime have described the cause of the incident as a “gas explosion,” a citizen journalist has published a video showing that the building where the explosion occurred had no gas piping at all and was not connected to the urban gas network.

There have also been reports of internet disruptions following this explosion in Bandar Abbas.

At the same time, rumors circulated about the killing of Alireza Tangsiri, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, in the Bandar Abbas explosion, which the IRGC’s public relations office denied.

In Parand, the governor of Robat Karim and Parand said the thick smoke observed was caused by a reed fire and that the Parand industrial town had not experienced any incident. In Ahvaz, the fire chief announced that following a gas explosion in a four-unit building in the Kian Shahr neighborhood, four members of a family—including the father, mother, and two children—lost their lives. The source of this explosion has not yet been determined.

Claims by officials of Iran’s regime that such incidents are the result of “gas explosions” or “natural fires” are not new. In the past as well, especially during the twelve-day war in which many senior military and political officials of Iran’s regime were killed in similar incidents, the regime frequently cited gas explosions as the cause.

Hours after these explosions, Reuters news agency quoted two Israeli officials as saying that Israel had no role in the series of explosions that occurred in Iran on Saturday, January 31.

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has in recent weeks repeatedly expressed explicit support for Iranian protesters and warned Iran’s regime and its repressive apparatus against killing protesters, saying that if protesters are executed, the United States will take “very decisive actions.”

On Saturday, January 17, in an interview with Politico magazine, he said that the “Ayatollah” is guilty of completely destroying his country and that it is time to look for new leadership in Iran.

The United States has sent a massive naval fleet—including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group—and very large quantities of military equipment and hardware to the region.

Iranian Regime Majlis Acknowledges Arrest of Children in January Protests

Jubin Katiraie
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Iranian Regime Majlis Acknowledges Arrest of Children in January Protests

The Education Commission of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (Parliament), while acknowledging that a number of students under the age of 18 were arrested during the crackdown on the January protests, reported that its letter to the Law Enforcement Command regarding killed and detained students has gone unanswered.

Alireza Monadi Sefidan, head of the Education Commission of the Iranian regime’s Majlis, told the state-run ILNA news agency on Friday, January 30, that in this letter, in addition to asking about detained students, questions were also raised about the number of students killed and injured, but said, “So far, we have not received any response to this letter.”

Farshad Ebrahim-Pour Nourabadi, deputy head of the Education Commission, also said: “What is certain is that among these individuals, there are a number of students under the age of 18.”

Iran’s Regime Pressurizes Families of Martyrs of Recent Protests

Ebrahim-Pour also responded to the recent position of the Ministry of Education, which claimed that “most of the detainees were school dropouts and were only of school age,” saying: “According to the law, all individuals from pre-school age through twelfth grade are considered students.”

Despite the lack of any response from the Law Enforcement Command to the Education Commission’s letter, this member of Majlis claimed that “the treatment of students is carried out within the framework that individuals under 18 are subject to their own specific conditions and regulations.”

These official statements come as the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations announced on its Telegram channel, in a dossier titled “Empty Desks,” that as of January 30 it had published the names of one hundred students who were killed by Iranian regime agents during the violent January crackdown.

The human rights website HRANA announced that as of January 29 it had confirmed the killing of about 6,100 protesters, including at least 118 children under the age of 18, and is still investigating and verifying the identities of more than 17,000 additional reported deaths.

On Friday, January 30, the Teachers’ channel wrote that one of these cases concerns “a student named Aso Keykhosravi, a 17-year-old student from Javanrud, who after being arrested by security forces, there has been no news of him for three days, and as of the time of publication, his place of detention and physical and psychological condition remain unknown.”

In another case, the channel reported the arrest of Ali Eyvazi, a 16-year-old student from Baghmalek, in the early morning of January 9, “following a raid by more than 60 masked and armed forces on his home,” adding that “this teenager is under interrogation and security agents have pressured him to make forced confessions against some of his relatives.”

On January 23, Amnesty International announced that independent sources and information gathered by the organization indicate that the number of detainees has reached “tens of thousands,” including children and teenagers, university students and school students, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, and members of ethnic and religious minorities.

In one such case, some human rights sources had earlier reported the transfer of “at least 150 women detained in connection with the nationwide protests, a significant portion of whom are female students, to the political ward of Adelabad Prison in Shiraz.”

These reports come as some citizens in parts of Iran have reported that regime agents were sent to schools to speak with students in order to impose the government’s official narrative of the protests.

In the government’s narrative, the January protesters are described as “rioters and street terrorists” who allegedly fired at people and killed about 2,500 individuals. This is while numerous and extensive images and documents have been published showing direct gunfire by regime agents, including with military weapons, and particularly from the rooftops of government and state buildings, targeting civilians.

Iranian Regime Medical Council Confirms Arrest of Doctors After Protests

Hoshang Amiri
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Iranian Regime Medical Council Confirms Arrest of Doctors After Protests

Mohammad Mirkhani, the social and parliamentary deputy of the Iranian regime’s Medical Council Organization, confirmed on Friday, January 30, the arrest of doctors during the January 2026 protests. According to him, no reliable statistics have been obtained regarding the number of detained doctors.

Mirkhani said that during the recent protests, “regardless of knowing for what reason and how many,” some doctors were arrested.

Iranian Doctors Arrested En Masse Over Providing Medical Aid to Protesters

The social and parliamentary deputy of the Iranian regime’s Medical Council Organization further explained that most of the information obtained about the arrest of doctors has emerged through conversations with colleagues: “Official and reliable reports and statistics about doctors arrested in incidents that carry security implications are not easily obtained, and most of this information comes from discussions with other colleagues saying that a certain doctor has also been arrested, and we are obliged to verify these reports.”

Mirkhani concluded by noting that access to medical treatment is a civic right for all people and that the medical community has always carried out its duties “without a political or social approach.”

Earlier, Mohammad Reiszadeh, the head of the Iranian regime’s Medical Council Organization, said on Wednesday, January 28, that “some colleagues and members of the medical community have faced problems, including judicial issues,” but that “so far no verdict has been issued for members of the medical community.”

Following the killing of protesters on the nights of Thursday and Friday, January 8 and 9, according to reports, a group of doctors and medical staff were arrested in various cities across Iran.

The World Health Organization also reported on Friday, January 30, that at least five doctors had been arrested and 50 medical aid workers injured.

This comes as, during the protests, regime forces attacked hospital buildings. In at least two cases, Khomeini Hospital in Ilam and Sina Hospital in Tehran were attacked by regime agents. Attacks on hospitals as civilian and medical facilities can be considered “crimes against humanity” under international law.

Russia Has Equipped Iranian Regime Shahed Drones with Starlink

Esmaeil Mohades
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Russia Has Equipped Iranian Regime Shahed Drones with Starlink

According to the assessment of Serhij “Flash” Beskrestnov, a drone expert, the Russian military has, for the first time, used a type of Shahed drone equipped with Starlink terminals during an attack on a Ukrainian helicopter.

Due to the installation of this new equipment, these drones can be guided more precisely and strike their targets. The expert published a video on the Telegram social network, apparently circulated on Russian channels, showing a Starlink-equipped Shahed drone attacking a Ukrainian helicopter.

After observing a BM-35 drone equipped with a Starlink terminal in mid-January, Beskrestnov stated that this is a major problem for Ukrainians. Drones guided in this way cannot be countered through electronic warfare and, under the control of an operator from Russian territory, hit their targets with full reliability.

U.S. Imposes New Sanctions on Iran’s Drone Supply Network

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based research organization, recently said, citing reports about Molniya-2 drones equipped with Starlink, that the effectiveness of these Russian drones on the battlefield has “increased significantly” thanks to Starlink.

The possibility of using tanks for countermeasures

The Unian news agency, a Ukrainian outlet, quoted aviation expert Valerii Romanenko as saying that the only way to counter Starlink-equipped drones is to destroy them.

According to him, a helicopter landing site, like the one seen in the video, must be protected by air defense systems, for example by using Gepard anti-aircraft tanks that Ukraine has received from Germany.

As Ukrainian officials have stated, these tanks have shown considerable effectiveness in shooting down Shahed drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles.

In his recommendations, Romanenko also raised the idea of disabling Starlink connections, though not completely or by cutting off the internet nationwide, but rather in specific areas.

Shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Starlink became a key element in Kyiv’s defensive and military activities. Ukraine itself makes extensive use of Starlink communications, which belong to Elon Musk, and is heavily dependent on them. Therefore, a widespread shutdown of these connections cannot be a solution.

Starlink has stated that it is not a commercial partner of Moscow. According to Romanenko, Russia gains access to Starlink terminals through third parties, namely individuals or private companies, and therefore cannot deploy them on a very large scale.

This is not the first time that concerns have been raised about the danger of equipping Russian drones with Starlink.

In September 2024, Ukraine’s air defense reported during defensive operations and the downing of dozens of drones that investigations had revealed the drones were equipped with Starlink antennas. In images of the drone wreckage, the Starlink logo could also be seen on one of the components.

EU Designates IRGC as Terrorist Organization Amid Escalating Repression in Iran

Jubin Katiraie
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EU Designates IRGC as Terrorist Organization Amid Escalating Repression in Iran

On January 29, 2026, the European Union took a step unprecedented in its relations with Tehran by designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. The decision, adopted unanimously by all 27 EU member states during a meeting of the bloc’s Foreign Affairs Council, placed the IRGC on the EU’s terrorist list alongside groups such as ISIS and al-Qaida. With this move, the EU formally categorized the IRGC not as a conventional military institution, but as an entity engaged in organized violence, repression, and transnational militant activity.

The timing of the designation coincided with heightened unrest inside Iran. Nationwide protests that erupted in late December were met with a severe crackdown by Iranian regime security forces, with the IRGC playing a central role. According to information cited by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), thousands of civilians were killed during the suppression of the protests, including dozens of children. The PMOI reported that it had documented the identities of more than 1,000 protesters killed by regime forces during this period.

Latest Developments in the Iran Uprising; Italy Joins Calls for Proscribing IRGC

European officials publicly reacted to the scale of violence. Dutch Foreign Minister David van Wee characterized the regime’s actions against protesters as “bestiality,” while Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen described the events unfolding in Iran as “beyond words.” These statements reflected a shift in tone among EU member states, several of which had previously expressed reservations about formally designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization. France and Spain, both cited as having raised concerns in earlier discussions, indicated a change in position on January 28, clearing the path for unanimity.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas framed the decision in stark terms, stating that “any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise.” Her remarks echoed a growing consensus within European institutions that the IRGC’s domestic and regional conduct could no longer be treated as a conventional security matter.

Reactions from Iranian opposition figures underscored the political significance attributed to the decision. Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), described the designation as an “urgent response” to the killings of protesters during the uprising. She linked the EU’s action directly to events on the ground, arguing that it reflected recognition of the IRGC’s role in internal repression. Rajavi also called for additional measures, including the closure of Iranian regime embassies, the expulsion of regime diplomats and intelligence agents, and a complete cutoff of financial channels connected to the IRGC and the Ministry of Intelligence.

The IRGC was established in 1979 by regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Shah. From its inception, it was tasked not primarily with national defense, but with safeguarding the newly established clerical system. Khomeini’s assertion that “if the IRGC is gone, the whole country will be lost” reflected the regime’s view of the organization as inseparable from its own survival.

Over the decades, the IRGC expanded into a multifaceted force with ground, naval, and aerospace branches, reporting directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Beyond its military role, it developed into a dominant economic actor, controlling or influencing large segments of Iran’s economy. Its involvement in construction, energy, telecommunications, and finance has been widely documented, alongside allegations of systematic corruption and the diversion of national resources.

Domestically, the IRGC has been repeatedly linked to violent crackdowns on dissent. The killing of approximately 1,500 protesters during nationwide demonstrations in November 2019 stands as one of the most frequently cited examples. The recent events of early 2026, referenced by European officials in the context of the terrorist designation, added to this record.

The IRGC Affiliate with A 400 million Euro Empire in Europe

Internationally, the IRGC’s Quds Force has played a central role in supporting and directing armed groups across the Middle East. Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthi movement in Yemen are among the organizations cited as recipients of IRGC funding, training, and operational guidance. These activities have positioned the IRGC as a key driver of regional instability from the EU’s perspective.

For years, Iranian opposition groups lobbied European institutions to formally recognize the IRGC as a terrorist organization. The NCRI and affiliated groups argued as early as the 1980s that the IRGC was the backbone of the clerical system and that engagement with Tehran without addressing this structure amounted to indirect legitimization. By 2010, these calls became more explicit, urging concrete legal action.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola later acknowledged that such a designation had long been considered politically unachievable. Its adoption now activates a series of legal consequences, including asset freezes, travel bans, and prohibitions on providing financial or material support to the IRGC. These measures are intended to restrict the organization’s ability to operate, fundraise, and maintain networks within Europe.

The EU’s decision marks a clear departure from years of cautious diplomacy toward Tehran. By formally labeling the IRGC as a terrorist entity, European governments have placed the regime’s central security institution under the same legal framework applied to non-state militant groups. The move signals not only a response to events inside Iran, but also a reassessment of how the IRGC is understood within the broader international system.

Whether this designation leads to further policy shifts remains to be seen. What is clear is that, for the first time, the EU has codified its view of the IRGC in legal terms that reflect the organization’s record of violence at home and abroad. For Iranians facing repression, and for policymakers grappling with Iran’s regional role, the decision represents a turning point whose implications will continue to unfold.

The “Metronome” Deception: Forensic Evidence Reveals IRGC Runs Massive Bot Armies to Amplify Reza Pahlavi

Hoshang Amiri
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The “Metronome” Deception: Forensic Evidence Reveals IRGC Runs Massive Bot Armies to Amplify Reza Pahlavi

In one of the most significant exposes regarding the Iranian political landscape in the digital age, the US-based cyber intelligence firm Treadstone 71 has released a technical report that shatters the narrative of “online popularity” surrounding Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Iranian dictator. The report, backed by irrefutable digital forensic evidence, reveals that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) are behind a massive network of automated bots designed to artificially inflate Pahlavi’s profile, aiming to hijack the trajectory of the popular uprising and distract from the democratic alternative.

This is not mere speculation; it is mathematical proof. The investigation uncovered hundreds of thousands of accounts “born” at the exact same second, operating with a mechanical precision impossible for human beings.

The “Metronome Heartbeat”: A Forensic Impossibility

At the core of the report is the discovery of a technical pattern Treadstone 71 terms the “Metronome Heartbeat.” In analyzing data from hundreds of thousands of accounts promoting the monarchy and attacking the Iranian Resistance, cyber experts found a statistical anomaly that serves as a digital smoking gun:

  • Over 356,000 accounts were created at time intervals matching with millisecond precision.
  • These accounts were not created randomly, as human users would sign up. Instead, they were generated at the exact “00” second of every minute, in rigid 60-second intervals.

The report states unequivocally: “Humans do not sign up like clockwork. Bots do!”. This specific “fingerprint” confirms that the operation was programmed via automated scripts, likely running on server farms managed by state-level actors.

Anatomy of a Mirage: 9 out of 10 Accounts are Fake

The report delves into the specifics of this “cyber farm” working in favor of Reza Pahlavi, revealing that the numbers often cited as proof of his support are nothing more than a digital mirage:

  1. Staggering Fake Rates: Forensic analysis of Instagram accounts promoting Pahlavi revealed that approximately 90% (specifically 88.6% in the studied sample) were fake bot accounts.
  2. The “Proxy” Campaign: The highly publicized “Man Vekalat Midaham” (I give my proxy) campaign, which urged Iranians to designate Pahlavi as their representative, was the product of “Deceptive Amplification.” The report found that the vast majority of hashtags and engagement for this campaign were driven by these automated accounts triggered at specific times.

Characteristics of the IRGC Cyber Army

Treadstone 71 provided a detailed breakdown of the characteristics that identify these accounts, making it easier for observers to spot the deception:

  • Alphanumeric Names: Accounts often use randomly generated handles (e.g., user847392), indicative of auto-generation scripts.
  • Missing Identity: Most accounts lack real profile photos or use generic stock images.
  • follower/Following Ratio: These bots typically follow a high number of accounts to boost others’ numbers but have zero or very few followers themselves.
  • Creation Spikes: The report mapped massive spikes in account creation that coincided with specific political events (e.g., June 2022, September 2022, January 2023), confirming they are switched on and off centrally.

The Strategic “Why”: Why Does the Regime Support the Shah’s Son?

This leads to the critical question: Why would the IRGC and the regime’s intelligence apparatus build a cyber army to support the son of the deposed Shah?

The answer lies in the strategy of “Controlled Opposition.” The report and subsequent political analysis suggest several key objectives for the regime:

  1. Marginalizing the Democratic Alternative:

The regime understands that its existential threat comes from organized, democratic forces like the NCRI and the Resistance Units. By artificially inflating Reza Pahlavi, the regime creates a “straw man” opposition. They aim to convince the West and the internal population that the only alternative is a return to the past, thereby overshadowing the forward-looking democratic movement.

  1. Sowing Division:

These bots do not just praise Pahlavi; they are programmed to launch vicious, coordinated attacks against other revolutionary forces. The report notes this behavior creates a “toxic polarization” in the online space, designed to exhaust real users and fracture the unity of the opposition.

  1. Distorting the Uprising’s Narrative:

While the streets chant “Down with the Oppressor, be it the Shah or the Leader (Khamenei),” the cyber army floods social media with pro-monarchy slogans. This distorts the true demands of the revolution and serves the regime’s narrative that the protesters are merely seeking a return to dictatorship, which helps the regime justify its crackdown.

Deceptive Amplification: Manufacturing Consent

The report explains “Deceptive Amplification” as a psychological warfare technique. Social media algorithms prioritize content with high engagement. When 350,000 bots interact with a Pahlavi post simultaneously, platforms like X (Twitter) and Instagram promote it as a “trend” to millions of real users.

In doing so, the IRGC creates a “false reality,” misleading Western journalists and policymakers into believing there is groundswell support for the monarchy, when in fact, the noise is generated by server racks in Tehran.

Conclusion: The Mask Falls

The Treadstone 71 report confronts the international community, tech giants, and the Iranian public with a stark reality: The so-called online popularity of Reza Pahlavi is an intelligence operation run by the very regime the people are trying to overthrow.

The astronomical follower counts and trending hashtags are digital smoke and mirrors. They are designed to obscure the truth that the Iranian people reject the “Mullahs’ dictatorship” just as firmly as they reject a return to the “Shah’s dictatorship.”

This revelation places a burden on platforms like Meta and X to remove these accounts for violating policies on “Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior,” and serves as a warning to the world not to mistake the noise of IRGC bots for the voice of the Iranian people. The truth of Iran is written in the streets by the blood of protesters, not in the algorithms of the regime’s cyber squads.

Iranian Doctors Arrested En Masse Over Providing Medical Aid to Protesters

Sia Rajabi
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Iranian Doctors Arrested En Masse Over Providing Medical Aid to Protesters

The arrest and repression of doctors and medical staff by the Iranian regime’s security agents in various cities continues. According to reports from Iran, agents have raided the homes and workplaces of doctors and medical personnel who helped treat injured protesters and violently arrested them.

During the protests, at Golsar Hospital in Rasht alone, a large number of bodies were transferred from the hospital to the morgue, and more than ten teenage girls aged 16 to 17, who had been injured by gunfire, lost their lives.

In one reported case, regime agents abducted an injured girl who had survived surgery, taking her from her hospital bed while she was still in postoperative condition.

Nationwide Protests in Iran Enter Eleventh Day as Strikes and Clashes Intensify

It is also said that regime institutions deliberately blocked blood bank services and provided blood exclusively to medical staff at treatment centers affiliated with the armed forces.

According to reports, after security agents learned that some doctors and medical staff had admitted injured people free of charge and performed surgeries on them in hospitals, they raided their homes or workplaces and arrested some of them.

Earlier reports indicated the arrest of Dr. Ameneh Soleimani, a physician and director of a skin and hair clinic in Ardabil, saying that she was arrested by security forces in recent days for admitting and treating people injured during the protests.

At least four doctors have been arrested in Ardabil. Additionally, a first responder named Khosrow Minaei, who was treating injured people in his home, was arrested on January 14 after agents raided his residence.

In this context, the human rights organization “Hengaw” reported the arrest of Dr. Alireza Golchini, a surgeon and physician from Qazvin, for providing medical services to citizens injured during the popular protests. According to these reports, this doctor is facing the charge of “enmity against God” and the risk of a death sentence.

Arresting doctors to cover up the scale of the killings

According to some reports, Dr. Farhad Nadali, a surgeon, specialist physician, and faculty member at Golestan University of Medical Sciences, was arrested on January eight and nine after protesting the shooting of protesters and the wounded by regime agents, and there is no information about his condition.

According to published reports, Babak Pouramin, an emergency medicine specialist, was also arrested on January 19.

Some reports indicate that this doctor is currently being held in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad.

According to a report by the British newspaper The Guardian, extensive testimonies from doctors, forensic staff, and cemetery officials paint a troubling picture of the real scale of the crackdown on protests in Iran. This picture and the number of fatalities, according to witnesses, differ significantly from official figures.

Due to the lack of free access to the internet inside Iran, estimating the number of victims is extremely difficult, but all sources speak of several thousand people killed by the Iranian regime’s security forces.

One doctor inside Iran, whose name was not disclosed in The Guardian report for security reasons, says that in the early days of the protests, most of the injured presented with superficial wounds, but gradually the nature of the injuries changed.

He explains that suddenly they were confronted with wounds showing signs of direct gunfire or deep injuries; many of those people lost their lives. According to this doctor, fear of identification and arrest caused many injured people to never go to state hospitals.

It appears that the widespread wave of arrests of doctors is not solely due to medical staff providing aid to the injured but rather is linked to the Iranian regime’s intense efforts to eliminate evidence of crimes and the killing of people by cutting off the internet and arresting witnesses.

Unidentified Bodies and Mass Graves in Iran’s Two-Day Bloodbath

Hoshang Amiri
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Unidentified Bodies and Mass Graves in Iran’s Two-Day Bloodbath

The findings of an extensive investigation conducted by The Guardian recount the catastrophic dimensions of the bloody crackdown on Iran’s nationwide and national uprising in January 2026. The report, presenting horrific evidence of mass killings, the collapse of the healthcare system, and mass graves, shows how the Iranian regime, under the cover of a complete internet shutdown, turned Iran into a killing ground over the course of two days.

According to The Guardian’s report, the wave of violence sharply escalated starting on Thursday, January 8, reaching dimensions unprecedented in Iran and possibly in contemporary world history.

UN Special Rapporteur: Iran’s Protest Crackdown Among the Most Brutal in Modern History

Fear of hospitals and clandestine treatment

On that day, the mobile phone of a doctor in a not-so-large Iranian city, identified in the report under the pseudonym “Dr. Ahmadi,” was ringing constantly.

Throughout the week, protesters injured by batons and pellet weapons were taken to hospitals by police forces, but medical staff believed that many wounded young people avoided going to hospitals because they feared that being registered as trauma patients would lead to their identification and arrest.

In response to this situation, Dr. Ahmadi and his spouse secretly began treating the wounded at a location outside the official state hospital system; through an informal local network, injured young people were directed to them.

The sudden change in the nature of injuries

At first, most injuries were superficial, wounds that required stitches and antibiotics. However, as the hours of Thursday evening, January 8, passed, the number of people seeking treatment steadily increased.

According to The Guardian, the next day everything suddenly changed. Protesters kept coming, but this time their injuries were far more severe: gunshot wounds from close range and deep injuries caused by bladed weapons, often targeting the chest, eyes, and genitals.

Reports and Horrific Accounts of the Massacre of Protesters and Coup-De-Grace Shots In Hospitals

Unofficial death toll and doctors’ estimates

Dr. Ahmadi told The Guardian that he was shocked by the number of those killed, noting that in that small city alone, more than forty people had lost their lives.

Due to the complete internet shutdown, no one had a picture of the overall situation across the country.

To map the national scale of this violence, Dr. Ahmadi formed a network consisting of more than eighty doctors and medical staff across twelve of Iran’s thirty-one provinces.

This network shared its observations and data to obtain a more accurate picture of the scale of the killings.

The assessments by these doctors, shared with The Guardian and supplemented by accounts from morgues and cemeteries across Iran, show that all official and public figures are “severely below the reality.”

These doctors have refrained from giving a definitive figure, but they believe that the deaths officially recorded likely account for less than 10% of the real toll. By comparing the number of killings, they personally witnessed with typical hospital statistics, they estimate that the true number of those killed may exceed 30,000 people.

Concealment and the disappearance of bodies

The Guardian’s report also points to organized efforts to conceal the true scale of the casualties.

Accounts from morgues, cemeteries, and hospitals across Iran describe bodies being transported in food delivery trucks and meat transport vehicles, the rushed burial of corpses, and the disappearance of hundreds of bodies from the country’s forensic medicine system.

At one morgue, staff said that several trucks filled with bodies arrived, a volume far beyond the storage and refrigeration capacity of that facility.

When staff objected that it was impossible to handle that many bodies, two trucks carrying corpses were transferred to another location.

Videos and eyewitness testimony of mass burials

Verified videos from the Kahrizak forensic medicine center in Tehran, reviewed by The Guardian, show similar scenes, including what appear to be hundreds of bodies placed outside the facility and families searching among them for their loved ones.

The Guardian also spoke with three independent witnesses who reported mass burials and the accumulation of hundreds of bodies at Behesht-e Sakineh cemetery in the city of Karaj, about fifty kilometers west of Tehran.

In a written account shared with The Guardian, a person using the pseudonym Reza said that on January 10 and January 11, hundreds of bodies described as “unidentified and unclaimed” were transferred to this cemetery.

According to him, many of the bodies were transported in pickup trucks usually used to carry fruits and vegetables, and not all of them were placed in proper body bags.

The digital iron curtain and internet shutdown

The report emphasizes that the widespread internet shutdown played a key role in keeping the true scale of the massacre hidden.

Images of bodies have only leaked out through illegal satellite communications, while families have been left unable to learn the fate of their loved ones, as hospitals and forensic medicine centers have collapsed under the unprecedented volume of victims.

Three Former IRGC Members Expelled from US

Esmaeil Mohades
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Three Former IRGC Members Expelled from US

The United States Department of Homeland Security announced that it has deported three Iranian nationals suspected of terrorist activities from the country.

The United States Department of Homeland Security stated that three Iranian nationals—Ehsan Khaledi, Mohammad Mehrani, and Morteza Nasiri Kaklaki—were former members of the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

According to the department, these individuals were among 14 Iranian citizens who left the United States on Sunday aboard a deportation flight, described as the first return flight to Tehran since the start of widespread anti-regime protests in Iran and the regime’s deadly crackdown.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Mohammad Mehrani and Ehsan Khaledi illegally entered the United States through Southern California in 2024.

It was also announced that Morteza Nasiri illegally entered the country in November 2024 after being detected by the U.S. Border Patrol near San Luis in the state of Arizona.

The White House emphasized that all those deported were subject to final and enforceable orders, meaning that a federal judge had issued rulings for their removal from the United States.

Houthis and Kataib Hezbollah Issue Threats in Support of Iran’s Regime

Jubin Katiraie
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Houthis and Kataib Hezbollah Issue Threats in Support of Iran’s Regime

As speculation has intensified in political and media circles about the possibility of U.S. military action against the Iranian regime, Yemen’s Houthis and Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah, two proxy groups of the Iranian regime, have adopted threatening positions and declared that they are ready to enter the conflict.

According to the Associated Press news agency, the Houthis of Yemen threatened on Monday, January 26, that they would resume their attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

The group also released images of a ship on fire and wrote in the caption: “Soon.”

The Associated Press wrote that this threat was likely issued in response to the strengthening of the U.S. military presence in the region and the increased likelihood of action against the Iranian regime.

Hezbollah Turns to Drug Trafficking in Venezuela as Support from Tehran Dries Up

Shortly after the start of the Hamas-Israel conflict, the Houthis began attacking international shipping in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden, endangering maritime security in the region. The group has also repeatedly attempted to target Israeli territory.

After a ceasefire was established in the Gaza war, the Houthis ended their attacks in regional waters, but they have consistently warned that they are ready to resume their destabilizing actions if deemed necessary.

Reports indicate that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East and has been deployed near Iran.

On the other side, Esmail Baghaei, spokesperson for the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responded to the possibility of a U.S. attack by threatening that Iran’s government would “certainly respond decisively, with full force, and comprehensively.”

Kataib Hezbollah of Iraq threatens a “large-scale war”

Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, the secretary general of Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah, said in a statement—echoing the positions and rhetoric of Iranian regime officials—that a battle with the Iranian regime would not be easy.

He described the support of the “forces of resistance” for Iran’s regime as “necessary” and called on the “brothers in the east and west of the world” to be ready for a “large-scale war” in support of the Iranian regime.

Hamidawi added that the “mujahid brothers” must prepare themselves for “one of two good outcomes, martyrdom or victory.”

U.S. Designates Four Iran-Backed Proxy Groups in Iraq as Terrorist Organizations

“Axis of Resistance” is the term used by officials and media of the Iranian regime to refer to armed groups supported by Tehran in the region, such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shaabi), and Yemen’s Houthis.

These remarks by the Iraqi militia figure about developments in Iran come as the Iranian regime has in recent weeks accused protesting citizens of links to “foreigners” and “enemies,” and has described international support for the Iranian people’s national revolution as “interference” in its internal affairs.

CNN had previously reported that Kataib Hezbollah and several other Iraqi armed groups had sent their forces to Iran to assist the Iranian regime in the deadly suppression of protesters.

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