Hengaw: Expansion of Revolutionary Uprising to All 31 Provinces; Confirmation of Over 500 Deaths

According to the latest report from the "Human Rights Activists News Agency" (Hengaw), the number of fatalities in the nationwide protests in Iran has increased to at least 538; this figure includes 490 protesters and 48 members of the repressive forces. Hengaw has reported that protests have been recorded in over 570 locations across Iran and in all 31 provinces of the country. This human rights organization also reported the detention of more than 10,600 individuals during the protests. Hengaw stated that this data has been collected based on a network of activists inside and outside the country, but given the incoming reports, it is highly likely that this number will rise. Simultaneously, reports and videos circulated on social media indicate the continuation of widespread protests in Tehran and other cities, including Mashhad. The national and widespread uprising in Iran entered its fifteenth day on Sunday, with human rights sources and reports received by Voice of America indicating that the bloody crackdown on protesters in various cities has entered a new and unprecedented phase of violence. Images published from the forensic center in Kahrizak, Tehran, show the bodies of a large number of those killed in the revolutionary uprising. In a series of recorded videos, many citizens are seen examining the bodies of the deceased to identify their relatives and loved ones. In one of these videos, images of the faces and lifeless bodies of the deceased are broadcasted from the forensic monitors, and citizens are lined up in front of them to identify their loved ones. Other videos have captured the bodies of protesters on the ground, while their family members search among them for their loved ones. Furthermore, other videos sent from various locations in Iran on Thursday, which reached Voice of America today due to internet outages, show shocking scenes of the Islamic Republic's repressive forces shooting directly at protesters, resulting in the deaths of many citizens. According to these images and reports, the government's repressive forces have extensively used lethal and military weapons to shoot at protesters in the streets. In some of these videos, rapid gunfire directed at protesters has been recorded. The intensity of the violence has reached a level that observers say could be one of the bloodiest crackdowns in contemporary Iranian history. However, due to the complete internet shutdown and severe communication disruptions across the country, access to independent information and determining the exact number of fatalities is not possible.