About 2,000 people, including members of the security forces, have been killed in protests in Iran, an Iranian official said, marking the first time authorities have acknowledged the high death toll in an intense crackdown on two weeks of unrest across the country.
An Iranian official, speaking to Reuters, said that terrorists were behind the deaths of both protesters and members of the security forces. The official did not give a detailed description of who was killed.
The unrest, fueled by dire economic conditions, represents the biggest internal challenge for Iranian authorities in at least three years and comes amid intensifying international pressure following Israeli and US attacks last year.
Iran’s clerical authorities, in power since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, have tried to take a dual approach to the demonstrations, calling the protests over economic problems legitimate while simultaneously enforcing tight security measures. They accused the US and Israel of fomenting the unrest and said unnamed individuals they called terrorists had taken control of the protests.
A human rights group previously identified hundreds of people killed and said thousands had been arrested.
Communication restrictions, including an internet outage in recent days, have hampered the flow of information.
Videos of nighttime clashes between protesters and security forces over the past week, including several verified by Reuters, show violent clashes with gunfire and burning cars and buildings.
