Time: The Death Toll from Iran's Uprising Could Be Thousands; An Estimate of 6,000 Deaths in Three Days

The exact number of casualties from the nationwide uprising in Iran is still unclear, but investigations and reports indicate that the number of victims is likely much higher than the figures confirmed by human rights groups. Despite the severe violence from the government, protesters continue to demonstrate in the streets of various cities and fight for freedom. According to Time magazine, based on calculations made by an informal academic group of Iranian researchers and experts abroad, the death toll in just the first three days of the crackdown is estimated to be around 6,178. If accurate, this would indicate the deadliest government suppression in contemporary Iranian history. As reported by Time, these calculations began with data collected from hospitals in Tehran. A doctor in Tehran contacted six local hospitals and reported the following death tolls: Milad Hospital 70, Imam Hussein 70, Ibn Sina 23, Labafi Nejad 7, Fayyaz Bakhsh 15, and Shahryar 32; totaling 217 deaths in just one night across six hospitals. According to this report, out of 118 hospitals in Tehran, only 63 are public or military hospitals, and this research group assumed an average of 30 deaths per hospital. Researchers told Time that with a cautious and conservative approach, they based their calculations on the assumption that only half of these hospitals received corpses, estimating the number of protesters killed in Tehran on Thursday night, January 8, when the internet was first cut off, to be about 900. They added another 900 for Friday, the day and night when government forces suppressed with greater violence, and estimated 400 deaths for Saturday. The researchers also considered an additional 1,000 deaths for Alborz province, based on the intensity of violence from suppressive forces in its streets and the history of the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests. These calculations reached a total of 3,200 deaths in these two provinces over three nights. Researchers used the same method for other large and small cities, adjusting figures based on ethnic and historical factors. Then, according to Time, they halved the total, resulting in an overall death toll of 6,178 for three days. These figures only include bodies transferred to hospitals, and the actual number of victims is likely much higher, as many corpses have been directly transferred to forensic centers. Credible human rights groups have so far been able to confirm only a few hundred government killings due to internet outages and widespread disruptions in telephone and landline communications. One protester in Shiraz, who identified himself as 'Louis,' told Time: 'People want to overthrow the existing regime and replace it with something better. That’s why they put themselves at risk and become targets of gunfire.' The magazine wrote that on Friday night, suppressive forces were shooting freely in the Nazemabad neighborhood of Tehran, and quoted a resident of Tehran: 'There is blood everywhere, on the walls, in the streets. It’s a disaster. They killed anyone they could.' A person using the pseudonym Louis in Shiraz told Time: 'There is no doubt that people want to overthrow the existing regime and replace it with something better. And that’s why they make themselves targets and get killed.' Louis stated that the gatherings are '100 percent different' from previous protests, and the protesters are acting 'more organized and resilient.' Time's report states that videos obtained via mobile phones and satellite networks, including Starlink, show that hospitals are filled with shooting victims and that the Kahrizak forensic center in Tehran is facing hundreds of corpses. In Najafabad, Isfahan, 35 people were killed just on Thursday night. Despite all this violence and the high number of deaths, popular protests continue, with large gatherings observed in many cities including Rasht, Shiraz, and Tehran. The internet is cut off, cameras are recording; the fire of nationwide protests in Iran continues to blaze on the sixteenth day. The U.S. State Department: Trump is considering 'a range of powerful options'; the protests are a result of 'justified anger' from the Iranian people. NetBlocks: Internet outages in Iran have entered their fifth day. Donald Trump on the killing of protesters in Iran: The U.S. military is considering 'serious options.'