The ruthless Iranian regime has been callously slaughtering civilians who aren’t even involved in the nationwide anti-government protests, horrified witnesses said — as the death toll surged on Tuesday to roughly 2,000.<\/b>
\nThe ruthless Iranian regime has been callously slaughtering civilians who aren\u2019t even involved in the nationwide anti-government protests, horrified witnesses said \u2014 as the death toll surged on Tuesday to roughly 2,000.
Chilling eyewitness accounts of the bloodshed started emerging late Monday after Iranians were finally able to make international calls after authorities cut the country\u2019s internet supply as part of its merciless crackdown.
Iran\u2019s uniformed security forces on motorcycles were spotted opening fire on protesters in the city of Fardis, just outside Tehran, one witness told BBC Persian.
Officers in unmarked cars also stalked alleys and killed local residents not even involved the protests, the witness added.
\u201cTwo or three people were killed in every alley,\u201d the witness claimed.
A young woman said the worst of the carnage unfolded in Tehran on Friday when the city became a battlefield.
\u201cSecurity forces only killed and killed and killed. Seeing it with my own eyes made me so unwell that I completely lost morale. Friday was a bloody day,\u201d she said.
\u201cIn war, both sides have weapons. Here, people only chant and get killed. It is a one-sided war.\u201d
About 2,000 people, including security personnel, have been killed so far, an Iranian official claimed on Tuesday \u2014 marking the first time authorities have acknowledged the high death toll.
The Iranian official, who didn\u2019t give a breakdown of who had been killed, blamed terrorists for the deaths of both protesters and security personnel.
A human rights group has estimated at least hundreds of protesters have been massacred.
More than 10,700 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
The United Nation\u2019s human rights chief said Tuesday he was \u201chorrified\u201d by mounting violence by Iran\u2019s security forces against peaceful protesters.
\u201cThis cycle of horrific violence cannot continue. The Iranian people and their demands for fairness, equality and justice must be heard,\u201d the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said in a statement.
The distressing accounts are among the first to surface following two weeks of nationwide unrest, sparked by the country\u2019s crumbling economy.
President Trump, for his part, has threatened US military force against the authoritarian regime.
Iran, however, has warned that the US military and Israel would be \u201clegitimate targets\u201d if Washington uses force to protect demonstrators.<\/p>\n