Tehran, January 12, 2026 – In a stunning and inadvertent admission that has shattered the Iranian regime's veil of denial, a state-television broadcast from Tehran on Sunday evening revealed the grim reality of mass killings during the ongoing nationwide protests. A reporter, standing amid rows of shrouded bodies at the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Center – a notorious detention facility repurposed as a temporary morgue – explicitly stated that "hundreds of corpses, the majority protesters killed by gunfire from security forces," were being processed. The footage, aired briefly on IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) before an abrupt cut to static, marks the Khamenei government's most direct official acknowledgment to date of lethal force against demonstrators, fueling global condemnation and fears of an escalating state-sponsored massacre.
The segment, part of a purported "humanitarian update" on the crisis gripping Iran since late December, showed the reporter gesturing toward refrigerated trucks and overflowing storage bays at Kahrizak, where estimates from eyewitnesses and leaked videos suggest over 300 bodies have accumulated in the past week alone. "These individuals were shot during clashes with law enforcement," the anchor intoned matter-of-factly, before the broadcast veered into regime propaganda praising the "swift restoration of order." The slip – unscripted and uncensored for mere seconds – was quickly scrubbed from online archives, but clips captured by vigilant viewers have since amassed millions of views on smuggled platforms like Signal and Tor-based networks, evading the near-total internet blackout imposed on January 8.
This rare breach in Tehran's ironclad narrative comes amid a brutal suppression of protests that erupted on December 28, 2025, initially sparked by skyrocketing fuel prices and economic woes but swiftly morphing into broader demands for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's ouster. What began as sporadic rallies in cities like Isfahan and Tabriz has ballooned into the regime's most sustained challenge since the 2022 Mahsa Amini uprising, with demonstrators chanting "Death to the Dictator" and waving pre-Islamic Republic flags. Security forces – including the Basij militia and IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) – have responded with unrestrained violence, deploying live ammunition, tear gas, and even drone surveillance to quash gatherings.
Human rights monitors paint a harrowing picture. The Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group, citing smuggled hospital logs and family testimonies, confirmed at least 192 protester deaths as of Sunday, including nine children, with the true toll likely exceeding 500 amid the communication blackout. In Tehran alone, videos geolocated to the Alghadir Hospital in eastern districts show bodies strewn across bloodied floors, while a January 11 clip from an unidentified morgue depicts scores of white-shrouded forms lined up outside, some with visible gunshot wounds to the head and chest. "This is a state massacre unfolding in real time," Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, IHR director, told Reuters via satellite link from Oslo. "The TV confirmation isn't a gaffe; it's the regime's subconscious admission that the blood on their hands is too much to hide."
Eyewitnesses, speaking anonymously to international outlets from safe houses in neighboring Turkey and Iraq, described nightmarish scenes at Kahrizak – the same facility infamous for post-2009 election torture deaths. "I saw trucks unloading dozens at dawn; families wailing as officials stamped 'riot-related' on forms," recounted a Tehran paramedic who fled to Erbil. "The reporter's words were the first crack – now the world must force accountability." Another protester, a 28-year-old engineering student from Rasht, shared with CNN that 70 bodies arrived at a local hospital on January 9, many with sniper wounds from elevated positions.
The regime's response has been defiant. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in a January 12 address to the UN Security Council, claimed the unrest was "fully under control" and blamed "foreign agents" – a veiled swipe at the US and Israel – for orchestrating the chaos. President Ebrahim Raisi, echoing Khamenei's fatwa branding protesters "enemies of God," vowed "decisive action" against "rioters," while state media pivoted to economic incentives like fuel subsidies to quell dissent. Yet, the IRIB gaffe has emboldened the streets: Fresh clashes erupted in Tehran's Grand Bazaar Monday morning, with reports of at least 20 more fatalities from rubber bullets and arrests surpassing 5,000 nationwide.
Internationally, the broadcast has catalyzed outrage. US President Joe Biden, in a White House statement, condemned the "genocidal tactics" and announced fresh sanctions on IRGC commanders, while the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for an emergency IAEA probe into Iran's human rights record. Amnesty International, documenting over 1,000 injuries from live fire, urged the International Criminal Court to investigate "crimes against humanity." In a rare bipartisan nod, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman jointly decried the "medieval brutality," hinting at covert support for dissidents.
As Iran's winter deepens, the protests – now in their third week – show no signs of abating, with underground networks smuggling footage via VPNs and couriers. The Kahrizak revelation, however fleeting, has pierced the regime's facade, reminding the world that in the Islamic Republic's halls of power, even a momentary truth can ignite the flames of revolution. For the families queuing outside morgues, clutching faded photos of the lost, it is a pyrrhic validation: Their loved ones' deaths, once whispered rumors, now bear the regime's unwitting stamp. "They admitted it on their own airwaves," one grieving mother told BBC Persian from a Tehran alley. "Now, let the world make them pay."
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