Tehran rejects external casualty reports, claiming \u2018organised terrorist elements\u2019 killed over 3,000 people
\n TEHRAN
\nThe Iranian government announced the official death toll from nationwide protests, state media reported Wednesday.
\nThe Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, a government body responsible for overseeing those killed in conflicts since the 1979 revolution, said 3,117 people were killed, with 2,427 security personnel and civilians.
\nThe figures are based on information received from the Iranian Legal Medicine Organisation, a forensic body affiliated with the country\u2019s judiciary, it said in a statement.
\nThe foundation said the deaths took place in \u201cterrorist incidents\u201d in recent days that were \u201creminiscent of the brutal and savage crimes of ISIS (Daesh).\u201d
\nMany of the victims were \u201cpassersby who were killed as part of deliberate killing campaigns or fell victim to indiscriminate terrorist gunfire and what it described as blind brutality,\u201d it said.
\nOthers, it added, were among protesters who were shot within crowds by \u201corganised terrorist elements.\u201d
\nIt is the first official death toll released by the government since protests broke out in late December in Tehran and later spread to cities across the country.
\nPreviously, some human rights organisations outside Iran had published their own estimates, placing the number of deaths above 15,000, the majority of them protesters.
\nIranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, rejected those reports.
\nProtests erupted in Iran amid worsening economic conditions, particularly the sharp depreciation of the national currency and soaring inflation.
\nWeeks later, following a call for street protests by Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran\u2019s former monarch, violence and street clashes between protesters and security personnel were reported in several cities, including Tehran.
\nAuthorities have accused the United States and Israel of supporting \u201crioters\u201d and \u201cterrorists\u201d who allegedly attacked public and private property, including shops, banks and mosques.
\nPolice said hundreds accused of leading the protests had been arrested, while the judiciary vowed that there would be \u201cno leniency\u201d toward those responsible for violence and vandalism.
\nThe US and several European countries have imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran for a \u201ccrackdown on protesters.\u201d
\nIranian diplomats have been banned from European Parliament buildings, and Araghchi\u2019s invitation to the World Economic Forum\u2019s Davos summit was revoked.
\nFollowing the announcement of the official death toll, the Supreme National Security Council, the top security body, issued a statement saying it concluded, based on intelligence monitoring and assessments, that the events in recent weeks were a continuation of the 12-day war last June, blaming the US and Israel.
\n\u201cThe United States and the Zionist regime changed their tactics and targeted the social cohesion of the Iranian people, believing this would lay the groundwork for breaking the national will of Iran,\u201d it said.
\nIt added that Washington and Tel Aviv had sought to push protests toward violence in cities across the country, causing damage to the population and the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tehran rejects external casualty reports, claiming \u2018organised terrorist elements\u2019 killed over 3,000 people TEHRAN The Iranian government announced the official death toll from nationwide protests, state media reported Wednesday. The Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, a government body responsible for overseeing those killed in conflicts since the 1979 revolution, said 3,117 people were killed, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-527119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n