Continued unilateral, illegal economic sanctions as well as foreign meddling have caused extremely high inflation. Those with valid grievances, mostly bazaaries and other small business owners took to the streets in peaceful protest. The state has been explicit that these grievances are valid and has implemented some economic relief measures.

On the 3rd day of protest, Mossad and other western intelligence agencies activated their terror cells in the country. These people shot and killed dozens of police officers (many officers in Iran do not carry a firearm), set busses, mosques, churches, and other buildings on fire, and murdered many innocent civilians. Civil control was re-established by blacking out the internet and jamming Starlink.

After this, millions took to the streets in counter-protest to the violence and in support of the state. These are possibly the largest gatherings ever seen in Iran.

Many early death tole figures are from western think tanks and tend to ignore who was killed, implying that it was state oppression of “peaceful” protesters. Use extreme caution when encountering this information for the time being. It will take some time for the death toll and who is responsible to be clarified.

Along with what Lamassu said. 16,500 is just a ludicrous number. israel barely hit that level of murders/time when they were using 1000lb bombs, tanks and machine guns in the one of the densest populated areas on earth.

There is no way that many people were killed. Anyone who says any number in the thousands is not to be trusted… ever. It took israel 4 days to come up with their 10/7 estimate of 2000 dead, that the government organizing the counting with the internet and phones at their disposal. How on earth could a western NGO that is not in Iran come up with an estimate without access to people on the ground or any coordination between their sources?

The only way this number makes sense is if they have 165 people on the ground who all told their western employers they saw 100 people killed and they don’t mention that they all saw the same 100 people.