Khamenei ordered brutal crackdown on protesters ‘by any means necessary’

Units were deployed with shoot-to-kill orders, the officials said, and the number of casualties rose sharply in the days that followed.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Security forces across Iran were ordered to fire without restraint after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei directed the Supreme National Security Council on Jan. 9 to suppress nationwide unrest “by any means necessary,” according to two Iranian officials briefed on the instruction, The New York Times reported.

Units were deployed with shoot-to-kill orders, the officials said, and the number of casualties rose sharply in the days that followed. Despite widespread internet blackouts and phone disruptions, some Iranians bypassed restrictions to share accounts and hundreds of videos.

Footage from multiple cities shows the scale of the crackdown. In Tehran, gunfire came from the roof of a police station toward crowds below.

In Karaj, live ammunition struck a marcher in the head. In Isfahan, young men hid behind makeshift barriers in a narrow alley as shots and blasts echoed nearby.

The protests had simmered since late December, beginning with a strike in Tehran’s bazaar amid a worsening economy.

By early January, demonstrations had spread widely, prompting a lethal response from security forces. Medical staff and a nurse working in Iranian hospitals described scenes of overwhelming casualties, while photographs authenticated by The Times showed large numbers of bodies brought to a Tehran morgue.

Human rights monitors say the true toll may be far higher than confirmed figures.

The Washington-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reports at least 5,200 deaths, including 56 children.

Iran Human Rights, based in Norway, has verified at least 3,400 fatalities, with both groups cautioning that the final numbers could be two to three times greater as verification continues.

Iran’s National Security Council acknowledged 3,117 deaths in a statement, including 427 members of its own security forces. Senior officials, including Khamenei, blamed the violence on terrorist cells linked to Israel and the United States.

“This is not merely a violent protest crackdown,” said Raha Bahreini, a lawyer and Iran researcher at Amnesty International. “It is a state-orchestrated massacre.”