“About 10,000 have been captured and they might be demised as a group execution in the following days.”
That’s what a local man in one of Iran’s busiest cities told news.com.au through broken English this week.
His internet only just returned after a government-imposed tactical blackout to ensure pictures, videos and first-hand accounts of a bloody crackdown were not broadcast to the world.
But they are starting to filter through.
“The country is becoming a madhouse,” the man told news.com.au.
What started as a protest against a 50 per cent fuel hike in mid-November has turned into the deadliest political uprising since the Islamic Revolution 40 years ago.
According to reports, as many as 450 people have been killed during a brutal and heavy-handed response by government forces.
The New York Times reports that in the city of Mahshahr, near the country’s western border with Iraq, as many as 100 demonstrators were executed. It was reported that most of the casualties were not carrying weapons.
“The recent use of lethal force against people throughout the country is unprecedented, even for the Islamic Republic and its record of violence,” Omid Memarian, the deputy director at the Center for Human Rights in Iran, told the newspaper.