Iranian official says at least 2,000 dead

A large number of people have been killed in massive protests in Iran.

An Iranian official said that nearly 2,000 people, including security personnel, have been killed in ongoing anti-government protests in Iran. He gave this information to the British news agency Reuters on Tuesday (January 13). This is the first admission of a large death toll by an Iranian official after two weeks of unrest and a harsh crackdown across the country.

The official described a group of protesters as terrorists and claimed that they were responsible for the deaths of both protesters and security personnel. However, he did not provide any detailed information on how many of the dead were protesters and how many were security personnel.

The protests, which began over a severe economic crisis, are seen as the biggest internal challenge for the Iranian government in at least three years. At the same time, the situation has become more complicated as international pressure has increased after attacks by Israel and the United States last year.

Reuters says that Iran's religious leadership, which has been in power since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has taken a two-pronged approach to the protests. On the one hand, they have recognized the legitimacy of peaceful protests over the economic crisis, while on the other hand, they have resorted to a harsh security crackdown. The Iranian government has also accused the United States and Israel of fomenting unrest and said that "terrorists" have led the movement to violence.

Earlier, a human rights group claimed that hundreds of people had been killed and thousands arrested in the protests. However, the latest official admission indicated that the death toll was much higher.