Eyewitness accounts detail brutal crackdown on Iranian protesters

“On Friday, security forces only killed and killed and killed.”

By World Israel News Staff

Anti-regime protests have rocked Iran for nearly three weeks, accompanied by an increasingly deadly crackdown by security forces, as eyewitness accounts begin to surface despite a near-total information blackout.

A young woman in Tehran described the escalation of violence in stark terms in testimony to the BBC. She said last Thursday felt like “the day of judgment,” with protesters filling even remote neighborhoods of the capital. The following day, she said, was far worse.

“On Friday, security forces only killed and killed and killed,” she said, describing it as a “bloody day.” After the violence, she said many residents were too afraid to leave their homes and began chanting from alleyways and inside apartments.

She described Tehran as a battlefield, with protesters and security forces taking up positions across the city, but emphasized the imbalance. “In war, both sides have weapons,” she said. “Here, people only chant and get killed. It is a one-sided war.”

In a separate account, an Iranian protester in his 40s, identified by the pseudonym Omid, told the BBC that security forces in a southern city opened fire directly on unarmed demonstrators using assault rifles. “They shot straight into lines of protesters,” he said, adding that people collapsed where they stood. “We are fighting a brutal regime with our bare hands.”

Eyewitnesses in Fardis, a city west of Tehran, reported sudden attacks by members of the Basij paramilitary force after hours without visible police presence. According to the witnesses, uniformed Basij members riding motorcycles fired live ammunition directly at protesters, while occupants of unmarked vehicles shot into residential alleys. “Two or three people were killed in every alley,” one witness said.

Additional accounts from Tehran provided to The Associated Press described a heavy and coordinated security presence across the capital.

Witnesses said police deployed to disperse demonstrations were equipped with helmets, body armor, batons, shields, shotguns, and tear gas launchers, and were stationed at major intersections.

Members of the Basij force under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were also seen nearby, alongside plainclothes security personnel operating in public spaces. Witnesses said several banks and government offices were set on fire during the unrest, while widespread internet outages disrupted financial transactions.

According to Reuters, an Iranian official said at least 2,000 people have been killed in the unrest. At the same time, the London-based dissident outlet Iran International has reported far higher figures, estimating that at least 12,000 protesters have been killed amid the communications blackout.