28 ms·
Over 36,500 killed in Iran's deadliest massacre, documents reveal
- ares623 9mo agoI can't comprehend how a population can kill that many of their own people. They aren't even an "other" people, which has been the most common scapegoat lately. Same skin color, same religion, same language, same homeland.
- blell 9mo ago[flagged]
- Jabrov 9mo agoA lot of it is being done by mercenaries brought in from Afghanistan and Iraq
- gizajob 9mo agoHow do you know? Do you have links for that information? And if true they’d be regular murders brought in, not mercenaries.
- Jabrov 9mo agoIn the article it says “ While most of the killings were carried out by IRGC and Basij forces, reports received by Iran International indicate that proxy forces from Iraq and Syria were also used in the crackdown. The deployment of non-local forces suggests a decision to expand repression capacity as quickly as possible.”
- sshine 9mo agoMercenaries are murderers for hire. Also, read the article. :)
- bawolff 9mo agoI think the point is that its believed they were foreigners who were part of iranian proxy forces (e.g. iranian backed militias in iraq), so weren't doing it for money but out of some sort of loyalty to the iranian regime or ideology. Usually mercenaries mean people doing it for money not ideology who get paid significantly more than your average soldier.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- flyinglizard 9mo agoIran is made of many different ethnicities, and there were reports of Arab militants that were brought in by the regime (it’s not hard to imagine given how reliant those organizations are on Iran for support). It’s generally not very hard to incite violence across groups in the Middle East, especially when you consider how bad the outcome might be for the losing side. Case in point, the Alawites who lost control of Syria and are now persecuted by the new government.
- innagadadavida 9mo ago[flagged]
- gamma42 9mo agoMost obvious bait ever
- parineum 9mo agoIt's definitely bait but there is definitely not the same reaction to this among that group of people and when one asks the question "why?", there aren't a multitude if explanations that come to mind.
- g-b-r 9mo agoI guess that Iran felt like the strongest opponent to Israel, its history was not widely known by the protesters, and so it takes a little more to distance yourself. There's maybe some disquiet in realizing that they're not someone you can side with, too. And for sure some of the outlets followed by the protesters have ties to Iran, sadly.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- SegfaultSeagull 9mo ago[flagged]
- RobMurray 9mo agoIs Iran funded by and supplied weapons by the US and Europe?
- myth_drannon 9mo agoFrom the previous uprisings, the regime usually sends Arab mercenaries like Hizbollah. They don't speak Farsi and have no connection to the people of Iran.
- skissane 9mo agoThis is a figure for the whole of Iran. So it includes not just the Persian-majority areas, but also the minority-majority areas (Azeris, Kurds, Balochs, Arabs, Armenians, etc). It would not surprise me if the death toll in the minority-majority areas were higher, and hence they contributed a disproportionate percentage of the total, since security forces would likely find it easier to do that to people of a different ethnicity and/or religion (some of these minorities are predominantly Sunni, Christian, etc) than to people more like themselves.
- kibwen 9mo ago> I can't comprehend how a population can kill that many of their own people. The notion of some well-defined "people" is a fiction that ruling powers use to keep humanity's innate tribalistic tendencies pointed outward at their adversaries. The truth is that the powers-that-be consider themselves to be above "the people", and will dispose of you as soon as you become inconvenient.
- jacquesm 9mo agoI can easily comprehend it, the history books are full of people killing large numbers of their own people. They just find some irrelevant differentiating factor that allows them to label the other as the outgroup and bring out the guns, the tanks, the ovens and the bombs.
- toyg 9mo agoAlso, they know the alternative is that they will be dragged in the streets and killed. Iran is long past the point where a revolution can be peaceful and conciliatory; if the regime falls, there will be a redde rationem where most people connected to enforcement and decision-making will be very summarily judged by the people they abused for decades.
- hshdhdhj4444 9mo ago[flagged]
- ks2048 9mo agoIt looks like you were downvoted, but you’re absolutely right. “Their own people” is a silly trope - people are always “othered” by something - if not race (I guess what is mean by “thier own people”), then by religion, political persuasion, etc.
- vjvjvjvjghv 9mo agoIt’s not necessary to bring American politics into things that happen anywhere in the world.
- woodruffw 9mo agoIt’s not necessarily the primary factor, but it’s worth noting that Iran is actually a relatively diverse country by the region’s standards. There are significant Kurdish, Azeri, Balochi, etc. minority groups, for whom the idea that they’re in the same “homeland” as the Persians is not necessarily given.
- exidy 9mo agoThe Khmer Rouge executed between half a million and a million Cambodians between 1975 to 1979[0]. These were the intentional killings, estimates range to as many as 2 million Cambodians or 25% of the population died as a result of Khmer Rouge polices. The end of the regime was brought about by an incursion into the Vietnamese border town of Ba Chúc, resulting in the massacre of more than 3000 civilians. Vietnam invaded, toppled the Khmer Rouge and brought an end to the executions although civil war would continue for much of the next decade. For these actions Vietnam was extensively sanctioned[1]. The parallels with ongoing conflicts today are hard to ignore. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge#Crimes_against_humanity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge#Crimes_against_hum... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian%E2%80%93Vietnamese_War#International_response https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian%E2%80%93Vietnamese_W...
- tovlier 9mo ago[dead]
- throwawayheui57 9mo agoThey are “othering” the people actually, using very clear ideological and religious lines. That’s what I see and hear from the regime ad campaigns, propaganda, etc.
- dartharva 9mo agoNow you see how easy it is for humans to "other" people to kill them
- trhway 9mo ago[flagged]
- CamperBob2 9mo ago[flagged]
- bbls 9mo agoTrump keeping his word would raise gas prices though. A problem when he's managing his 15 other unforced errors currently killing the economy. It's not easy being Tariff Man.
- vondur 9mo agoThe US Navy has an entire battle group headed to the gulf along with aircraft being moved to Qatar. Something is brewing.
- quercus 9mo ago[flagged]
- gizajob 9mo agoDisgusting to make that joke on a forum that strives towards reason and enlightenment. Disgusting to make light of 36,500 regular people potentially dead while seeking freedom and justice.
- crazygringo 9mo agoFor comparison, estimates of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre death count are usually put in the 300-1,000 range by journalists and human rights groups. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre#Death_toll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests...
- kibwen 9mo agoBut note that the Tianenmen Square massacre was only one part of a larger nationwide protest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Chinese_protests_by_region https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Chinese_protests_by_regio... . There's no telling how many were killed or disappeared outside of Beijing.
- decimalenough 9mo agoActually, there is plenty of telling, and the largest (only?) massacre outside Beijing was in Chengdu, with 8 to 400 people killed depending on who you believe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengdu_protests_of_1989 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengdu_protests_of_1989 There was plenty of rounding up student leaders and executions afterwards, but I don't think even the wildest anti-communists would claim a death toll in the thousands for this.
- lukan 9mo ago"Actually, there is plenty of telling" To this day, the official version is, nothing happened there and then. If you talk about it online inside china, or using chinese services outside of it, it will automatically be blocked. So yes, people did get out, but till this day they will have to face persecution or other disadvantages and some want to to visit family again or not have them face consequences. In other words I don't know about any numbers, but how can you claim to know, when the chinese government did all it could to prevent acurate information?
- decimalenough 9mo agoThe demonstrations and crackdowns happened in the largest public squares of China's largest cities, in front of thousands of eyewitnesses, and the dead had friends and families who lived to tell about it. So while we don't have exact numbers, we do have reasonably accurate ballpark estimates. For Tiananmen, the best guess is on the order of a thousand dead, with high end 2x that and the official government figures 200-300.
- redwood 9mo ago[flagged]
- fortran77 9mo ago[flagged]
- LAC-Tech 9mo agoAre these really left and right issues? IE as the right is becoming more anti-Israel, you find a lot more pro Islamic Republic stuff there these days. The boomer and zoomer right are very different beasts. I don't follow the left as closely these days, but imagine there are a myriad of opinions on the matter.
- redwood 9mo agoRoger Waters is a boomer but reflects the zoomer left well. (To be clear I will be forever grateful to him for his music but he should really stop talking when it comes to the Iranian and Ukrainian people)
- LAC-Tech 9mo agoright, Russia/Ukraine is another thing which isn't as neatly left/right as people think. I used to read the English version of Russia today, and it was almost comical to seem them oscillate articles that fit the "Based Mother Russia of Traditional Values" trope, then right next to it nostalgic Tankie stuff or the anti "Western Imperialist" think pieces. It's like they didn't even know who their useful idiots were anymore.
- acdha 9mo agoThat’s quite the claim. Do you have any examples?
- redwood 9mo agoCheck out https://www.reddit.com/r/NewIran/ https://www.reddit.com/r/NewIran/
- yieldcrv 9mo agohm, I think we should re-evaluate sanctioning or civilian pressure campaigns, since the guise is for them to coax or turn on the government for regime change, but the government can just hire mercenaries from outside the country. don't know a solution but this one isn't it
- thinking_cactus 9mo agoHow about plain civil disobedience? Like just stop working? It would need to get pretty extreme before the government had the audacity (and even capacity) to actually track you down to your home and arrest (or kill) you. Although this kind of coordination might be difficult with government control of communication media.
- riscy 9mo agoPart of the motivation for these protests was the inflation making it hard to afford everyday living. Not working means even less money.
- throwawayheui57 9mo agoThe government’s income is made up of oil money not tax money. At some point, people may choose death by regime’s bullets than by hunger.
- Imustaskforhelp 9mo agoThis works in a country like India but even in Indian history, the movement can die down (it died down in chauri chaura as it became violent and Gandhi didn't like it being violent iirc) though my history about this can be a bit off and I can be wrong tho Regarding Iran, most of their money is from Oil. As throwawayheui57 says. So I don't really think that they would care much for civil disobedience I have heard that Iranian shops are either closed or running in the least minimum operational way (barely open/working) Tough times. I hope for a better future for people of Iran.
- Ray20 9mo ago> How about plain civil disobedience? Like just stop working? An amazing level of privilege. In half of the world, if you stop working, you will very soon die of hunger.
- caminante 9mo agoThe source (Iran International) is backed by Saudi money and has a bias to dunk on Iran. That said, I'm sure the death count numbers from the Rasht Massacre are staggeringly higher than the initial tallies of 2-5k.
- xyzzy123 9mo agoIt looks a LOT like a CIA front. EDIT: Sorry... that is too strong... "state aligned influence media". Note that the headline might be true, or it might not, but that source is quite glowy.
- k1m 9mo ago[flagged]
- redwood 9mo agoMehdi Hasssan worked for Al Jazeera which is funded by Qatar and is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood with a very specific political agenda. You'll notice they barely are covering the Iran News
- k1m 9mo agoHe also worked for MSNBC.
- EngineerUSA 9mo ago[flagged]
- cm2012 9mo agoThis is certainly the end of peaceful Iranian protests. Whether it leads to a violent revolution or a static police state like North Korea remains to be seen.
- voidfunc 9mo agoSeems the regime is OK shooting their way out of this problem. How big are these protests? 30K isn't exactly a small number of protestors.
- c420 9mo agoNot just shooting, chemical warfare: "Iranian security forces deployed unknown chemical substances amid deadly crackdowns on protestors in several cities earlier this month, eyewitnesses told Iran International, causing severe breathing problems and burning pain. They described symptoms that they said went beyond those caused by conventional tear gas, including severe breathing difficulties, sudden weakness and loss of movement... ...According to the accounts, in some cases gunfire began at the same time, or immediately after, protesters lost the ability to walk or run and fell to the ground. Several witnesses said that moments of immobilization became points at which shooting intensified, particularly when protesters collapsed in alleys or while trying to flee. Reports came from multiple cities, including Tehran, Isfahan and Sabzevar." https://www.iranintl.com/en/202601235991 https://www.iranintl.com/en/202601235991
- DoctorOetker 9mo agoAnyone who closely rewatches the surveillance footage of Mahsa Amini (at the fashion police) a few times, will quickly realize she was executed with a puff of gas, and the descriptions from Nazi concentration camp witnesses, and the description of the father of the weird cherry red bruises, and how she collapses on the footage combined with the behavior of 3 clearly complicit perpetrators before and after her collapse will quickly understand they used hydrogen cyanide, administered with some type of arm or sleeve-mounted bracelet. The footage was clearly released to potentially reveal these sensitive facts, as the local police were thusly trying to prevent carrying the blame for her death, by showing the parts requisite for understanding. If you need a more detailed description just reply to this comment and I will give more detail analysis of the footage.
- xvector 9mo ago[flagged]
- parineum 9mo agoDo you think that the people encouraging ice protests share some culpability in the deaths of the other protesters?
- zb3 9mo agoThe fact that he said that and then DID NOT topple the government in Iran is insane.. completely irresponsible, or rather responsible.. for those deaths. The irony is that now those who are still alive in Iran might remember this and update their notion of US trustworthiness accordingly.
- dotnet00 9mo ago[flagged]
- xvector 9mo agoWe should be angry about both situations but most people truly don't give a fuck about the latter. It is not just the Iran situation though. We make decisions all the time that result in immense amount of unnecessary suffering because of a total lack of rationality. Our food consumption choices alone have created the objectively largest and most horrific engine of suffering in the history of this planet, all for the pleasure of our taste buds. The average person is directly responsible for this. It is the irrationality and lack of empathy of the average person that bothers me. Unless you show them a video of protestors being massacred in Iran, or take them to a factory farm, they don't care. And even then, they often don't care. Why? Suffering is roughly sortable and it is certainly within the power of most people to drive down the greatest sources of suffering, and pressure their government to do so when it is not directly within their power. But people are irrational.
- tovlier 9mo ago[dead]
- paulryanrogers 9mo agoHow is this possible without explosives? Even with vehicle mounted machine guns it seems like a crazy high number. Did the protestors get boxed in somehow? And across so many locations, that seems to require a crazy amount of coordination to kill so many in so little time.
- xvector 9mo agoThey executed every protestor that was arrested or in the hospital (estimated at ~28k.)
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- rurban 9mo agoThey executed everybody on the streets and looked young enough. Not just protesters.
- JohnnyLarue 9mo ago[dead]
- robotresearcher 9mo agoIt's absolutely terrible but at the scale of a large country it's not logistically hard to get to that many deaths in a couple of days. Iran is a big country with population around 93 million. The article says "36,500 killed in 400 cities". That's 91 people per city.
- hahahahhaah 9mo agoI reckon that would require say 6 gunners in each city. Plausible.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- defrost 9mo ago
- bawolff 9mo agoThat's crazy. That's like ~40% of the deaths in the current gaza war, except over just 2 days instead of 2 years.
- SegfaultSeagull 9mo ago[flagged]
- PlatoIsADisease 9mo agoI've read a ton of philosophy and something I don't really understand is that one nation killing another is more immoral than when a nation does this to their own domestic population. Sure you will get some nay-sayers who say 'a life is a life', if moral particles existed, they might be correct. But for some reason, humanity doesn't seem to care as much. What makes intra-state politics more acceptable to use violence?
- bshepard 9mo agoBecause the international order is fundamentally anarchic, while domestic orders are (supposed to be at least) nomic, structured by law and rights. Yes, there are attempts at creating international law, but these amount to treaties more than a structured, visible, governing law.
- hahahahhaah 9mo ago> I've read a ton of philosophy and something I don't really understand is that one nation killing another is more immoral than when a nation does this to their own domestic population. Which books say that?
- layer8 9mo ago> one nation killing another is more immoral than when a nation does this to their own domestic population. I don’t think that’s a particularly established moral position.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- NedF 9mo ago[dead]
- ursuscamp 9mo agoThis is depressing because we will go to war over this and it’s going to be five years before people realizing they were tricked by “babies in incubators” propaganda.
- alex1138 9mo agoNo. Shut up. This has been confirmed by countless Iranians
- Der_Einzige 9mo agoWe prepared for this :) https://battlefield.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_for_Tehran https://battlefield.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_for_Tehran
- tovlier 9mo ago[dead]
- Dban1 9mo agoThe internet is fragile. Access can be so easily cut off for the masses in dire times.
- Thaxll 9mo agoBut hey, help is coming.
- freitasm 9mo agoNarrator's voice: "Unfortunatelly, they will be waiting forever, becase that help will never come."
- hahahahhaah 9mo agohelp will come ... but with scare quotes.
- pantalaimon 9mo agolooks like it hasn't moved in a bit https://www.cruisingearth.com/ship-tracker/united-states-navy/uss-abraham-lincoln/ https://www.cruisingearth.com/ship-tracker/united-states-nav...
- mkoubaa 9mo ago[flagged]
- maest 9mo ago[flagged]
- giancarlostoro 9mo agoThis is a little different, this is probably an issue anyone of any side politically can agree is bad. A government is killing their own people in the tens of thousands. It is foolish to even waste time pointing fingers outside of the country in question in my eyes because its irrelevant, their current government is killing citizens in the right here and right now.
- arczyx 9mo ago[flagged]
- tovlier 9mo ago[dead]
- chipsrafferty 9mo agoHN mods removed US News of a government killing its own people in Minnesota. The only difference is the quantity. You're being hypocritical.
- noncoml 9mo agoWhen people, or communities, or companies, show you their true colors, believe them. Watch out for all those flocking in to explain how this is different…
- mapontosevenths 9mo ago> "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." [0] However, it also says: > "Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it." [0] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- LAC-Tech 9mo ago[flagged]
- fwipsy 9mo agoIran is the 17th most populous nation in the world, with 93 million people. These protests seem to be occurring across the entire nation. Another comment mentioned over 4,000 separate clashes. Other sources have already corroborated a lower bound in the mid-thousands. I think the burden is on you to refute these numbers by showing that the sources are deliberately misleading or finding a flaw in the methodology. Simply saying that you find them "not credible" and that some people might have a political motive behind sharing them is not an argument. Note, I'm not saying that they have been confirmed, but I do not think that you have given sufficient cause for rejecting them out of hand.
- rngfnby 9mo ago[dead]
- LAC-Tech 9mo agohttps://www.en-hrana.org/day-twenty-eight-of-the-protests-arrests-uncertainty-over-detainees-fate-and-international-calls-for-accountability/ https://www.en-hrana.org/day-twenty-eight-of-the-protests-ar... This is the organisation most commonly cited in news reports, they estimate ~5200 protestors confirmed killed (+ a few hundred more for security personnel killed) They are a group of anti-regime Iranian dissidents based in the US. I don't know why they would seek to provide a deliberately low estimate.
- fwipsy 9mo agoConfirmed != estimated. This source does not make any estimates. They are investigating every death individually. Given the lack of transparency, the true number of deaths is likely higher than the number which can be confirmed at this time. As of writing this comment, the subtitle says "The number of deaths currently under investigation stands at 17,031." They do not claim that this is the total number of deaths either. 30,000 is not confirmed but cannot be ruled out.
- sunshengguang 9mo agoHe’s talking his book
- arczyx 9mo ago[flagged]
- gmerc 9mo agoTake a good look US, because once you're down far enough the fascist drain, that's the cost of trying to claw your way back out. And there's no hope of external intervention given nuclear arms
- jonehiskey1 9mo ago[flagged]
- minimal_action 9mo ago[flagged]
- rngfnby 9mo ago[dead]
- GeorgeOldfield 9mo agoadequate username
- ChrisArchitect 9mo agoEarlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46754132 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46754132
- rngfnby 9mo ago[dead]
- Markoff 9mo agobrought to you by unbiased quality sources on par with those which claimed WMD in Iraq... /s
- ozlikethewizard 9mo agoThe source is certainly unreliable, a quick scan of the wiki sources give you that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_International https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_International But does the number even matter? Whether its 4000 or 35000 the conduct has been unacceptable. The real question is the solution, is reporting like this designed to be used as the backdrop to foreign intervention? How many people will be killed then? "one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic" - Not Stalin
- jimbob45 9mo agoWhy intervene? Iran was already struggling badly as a nation. Killing 2-30k civilians will not help improve a failing state.
- pjc50 9mo agoThe invasion of Iran by the US is a fantasy. They'd much rather fantasize about invading Canada.
- ozlikethewizard 9mo agoForeign intervention doesn't just mean full out invasion though
- hggh 9mo agoWho designed this abomination of website? The "infinite" scroll is preventing me to get to the footer links.
- metalman 9mo ago[flagged]
- hnmullany2 9mo ago[flagged]
- riscy 9mo agoIsrael has killed more than double that in Gaza, and that’s only what’s been confirmed as many bodies are under rubble and millions are left living in tents: https://aje.io/5b4h1e https://aje.io/5b4h1e
- jameshilliard 9mo agoNote that these numbers come straight from the Hamas run health ministry which does not track civilian vs combatant deaths and has questionable accuracy.
- FilosofumRex 9mo ago[flagged]
- imsaeed 9mo agoYou confused the Quds Force with the IRGC. IRGC is involved in nearly everything in Iran.
- FilosofumRex 9mo agoQuds force is a the expeditionary force division of IRGC. IRGC are uniformed military officers and operate under armed forces regulations not police or civilian law enforcement.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- jesseab 9mo agoThe Wall Street Journal says at least 10,000 people were killed: https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/irans-protest-crackdown-looks-deadlier-by-the-day-31e1347a?st=eQ6VTi&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/irans-protest-crackdow... Horrifying.
- achow 9mo agoTowards the end it says.. Amiry-Moghaddam of Iran Human Rights said the death toll could be higher than 20,000, based on evidence reviewed by his organization.
- derelicta 9mo agoIHR is CIA-backed, and are thus prone to inflate these counts to justify an invasion.
- lurk2 9mo ago> IHR is CIA-backed Can you provide us with any evidence of that?
- thisislife2 9mo agoAccording to this right-leaning source (Revealed: The CIA-Backed NGOs Fueling the Iran Protests - https://ronpaulinstitute.org/revealed-the-cia-backed-ngos-fueling-the-iran-protests/ https://ronpaulinstitute.org/revealed-the-cia-backed-ngos-fu...): Most of the human rights organisation in Iran, cited heavily by western media, are backed by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which some countries (and some right-wing political organisations) believe is used by the CIA (if not funded and a front for it). Human Rights Activists in Iran is based in Fairfax, Virginia (where the CIA HQ is). (Apparently, they've received up to a million dollars in funding from the NED). The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran (ABCHRI) has also been associated with the NED. The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) is also based in New York City and Washington, D.C, and also funded by the NED (according to the Chinese).
- jdthedisciple 9mo agoJust leaving this here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d'%C3%A9tat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d'%C3%A9tat
- throwawayheui57 9mo agoFun fact, the clergy was a crucial part of the coup, backed by CIA. The same people in power now, btw.
- jdthedisciple 9mo agoFun fact, the same people who preach democracy to you all day, plotted and went about to oust one of the most democratically legitimate leaders of his country by night. Let that sink in for a moment.
- throwawayheui57 9mo agoI’m was under the impression that this was a well known fact. Let what sink in? What are you trying to say?
- echelon_musk 9mo agoJust busy being edgy I guess. There's nothing fun about the fact either.
- inglor_cz 9mo agoI am almost sure that every single person who plotted the 1953 coup is dead. Maybe one of them survives somewhere aged 103 and no longer knowing their name. Should Macron be judged by what Napoleon III. (or for that matter, I.) did? Surely there is some kind of continuity between those French heads of state, they even fly the some colors and sit in the same palace.
- jdthedisciple 9mo ago
- vogre 9mo agoThat number would inevitably lead to tons of videos with piles of corpses and cities covered with dead. Like ones that appear when west-backed Julani killed Alawites. But there is almost no such content - only rumors, unnamed sources and documents no one bother to check.
- heisig 9mo agoUnfortunately those videos exist. There are videos of relatives walking for hours from body bag to body bag to find the remains of their lost ones. There are videos of people with heavy machine guns shooting indiscriminately into peaceful protests. There are videos of executions. Everything has been recorded. There is a reason why the Iranian government cannot activate internet and phones anymore. Once people can communicate again, they will count and document the true scale of events. Right now, it seems the Iranian government would rather give up on internet and telephones altogether than having anyone find out, which tells you just about how bad the situation is.
- Imustaskforhelp 9mo ago> There is a reason why the Iranian government cannot activate internet and phones anymore. Once people can communicate again, they will count and document the true scale of events. Right now, it seems the Iranian government would rather give up on internet and telephones altogether than having anyone find out, which tells you just about how bad the situation is. I had talked to an iranian person who had misconfigured internet provider so I was able to talk to them on a forum. They mentioned that phone calls are still there in the daytime tho (they are cut at night), Sim,internet,starlink all are blocked If someone's from Iran/related to it feel free to correct me but has there been any recent development where phone calls are completely shut off?
- direwolf20 9mo agoPhone calls are unencrypted, that's why
- 9mo ago
- SilverElfin 9mo agoWhat happened to Trump threatening to invade? This is the one situation that intervention is called for.
- seu 9mo agoNo situation justifies external interference, especially not by the US, which has done more than its fair share of invading and then just making things worse for everyone, like in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- jiggawatts 9mo agoDefine “external”? External to the planet? The hemisphere? The continent? The lands previously a part of a former empire? The lands that a country lost to a war? A country border drawn arbitrarily (straight!) by an English Lord hundreds of years ago? A country border not everybody agrees about? A country border defined to keep out intervention more than to protect? A country border that is porous and is walked across daily by people that aren’t even sure where it is? Etc… At some point you may release that humans live on both sides of lines that often exist only on maps, and serve only to keep people servile to autocrats. Autocrats whom make sure that their schools teach the importance of borders.
- neoromantique 9mo agoJustifies? What a privileged position. It is great shame that fascist US regime is the only real hope and ally of Persian people today, but it is what it is. (Israel too, but Israel alone cannot do much). (But I'm sure EU will send a strongly worded letter any day now)
- thomassmith65 9mo agoThe US armada took a while to reach the Gulf. The air strikes will most likely happen this weekend.
- midtake 9mo ago36,500 seems awfully high. Did they just stand there? Those are numbers you'd see in a war, not a 2-day crackdown on protestors with small arms.
- scandox 9mo agoIn 532AD the Nika riots[1] in Byzantium ended with 30,000 dead. That's with hand to hand combat at close quarters. So while the source is biased the numbers are not intrinsically unlikely. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots
- CrzyLngPwd 9mo agoLooks more like a civil war or an insurrection rather than peaceful protests every time the numbers are pulled up.
- iammjm 9mo agoThis is partially on America. Didnt Trump publicly encourage the protesters and promised that the help is on the way?
- throwawayheui57 9mo agoThis is mainly on the security forces who kill people, then on the corrupt government that removes people’s freedoms and their power to decide their fate by free elections, etc. then on regimes apologists who try to undermine the suffering and then if you want to find whoever else that is responsible.
- drstewart 9mo agoIt's completely on EU, Canada, and Australia. Why didn't the new self-proclaimed leaders of democracy and freedom, now completely independent of the US, do anything? Too busy making deals with China and India for Russian gas, I suppose.
- proshno 9mo ago[dead]
- bdelmas 9mo agoI really don’t understand why in the West there is nobody in the streets to protest but there was so many people for Palestine… Where are the people?
- V__ 9mo agoBecause the western governments support Israel, thus a protests' goal is mainly aimed at changing that. How many westerns governments support Iran?
- s_dev 9mo agoThere probably isn't the same awareness. This is the first I'm hearing of a massacre in Iran. It's so hard to keep up with the news these days and for many it's just recommended to avoid it because it's all outrage generation now. The EU has been massively occupied with threats to invade Greenland for the past month along with the subsequent media attention, so that has saturated the news cycle.
- throw310822 9mo agoBecause the far worse Palestine massacre was perpetrated by an ally of the West, defended by western politicians and opinion makers, financed with western money and armed with western weapons. Then it makes sense to protest against your country's complicity. Protesting in your country against an enemy country that has been subjected already to all kinds of sanctions and military attacks makes little sense.
- apical_dendrite 9mo agoDid you also think that protests of the Darfur genocide were pointless?
- throw310822 9mo agoNot sure. Did you participate in them? What were they asking for?
- adriand 9mo ago
- causalscience 9mo ago[flagged]
- falcor84 9mo agoWhat does Israel have to do with this article? From what I gather, Iran International is owned by Volant Media, based in the UK, with funding from Saudi Arabia.
- causalscience 9mo ago[flagged]
- s_dev 9mo ago>What does Israel have to do with this article? Because others are asking why people are protesting for Gaza and not Iran.
- epolanski 9mo agoThis is a tragedy. I'm very against foreign forces intervening in such situations they can do more harm than good. On the other hand, effective dictatorships (hell executive in democratic countries too) are good at controlling police and military. E.g. take Belarus when it went through a wave of protests few years ago. I always think, if the people would really be against the regime, wouldn't members of the police and military know that? Receive pressure from families and friends, even non direct one, clearly showing that the public thinks otherwise and they can easily topple those regimes? The moment your armed forces and police stops obeying orders those regimes are cooked. Yet they don't. Which means that either there is no such an internal pressure or the regimes are extraordinarily good at selecting and incentivizing people to maintain the status quo. Still, I think this is no excuse for foreign intervention and you should not do others what you don't wish on yourself. But at the same time if those regimes are indeed so effective, how do you get to help them? I wish that at least instead of unilaterally, drastic measures were first sanctioned and carried out by UN, like it used to happen few decades ago in Africa. But now it is always unilateral and stuff like what happened in Venezuela has been a tragedy imho where de facto a single country decides to topple the leadership of another one. Again, I don't wish we do what we don't wish for ourselves. And I wouldn't want my country attacked and it's leadership decimated because somebody more powerful thinks so.
- lukan 9mo ago"Which means that either there is no such an internal pressure or the regimes are extraordinarily good at selecting and incentivizing people to maintain the status quo." Or there is pressure and discontent, but simply not enough to topple the regime as it needs way more than 50% support for a internal regime change. I have childhood memories of such a succesful change in eastern germany. Most people had enough for a long time, but they knew the sovjet tanks would come if they revolted. After it seemed the sovjets were busy on their own and won't come but rather did democratic reforms themself, but the GDR refused and stayed stalinistic - then the people went to the streets. And at some point those in power just gave up. Not really a consciouss choice, but they were visibly insecure and confused, so weak and fell. (But it was a close call, some wanted to bring out the machine guns as well) The iranian mullahs were insecure, but they choose the violent path of dominance. Not the same situation, as they did not rely on a foreign power like in GDR, but it seems they lost majority support a long time ago, but have a loyal enough religious base to use the weapons. And yes, military and police who have family members on the streets will defect at some point and it seems that also happened in Iran, just not enough.
- throw310822 9mo agoBe aware that all this might be the usual propaganda campaign that precedes US's "regime change" wars to make them appear as justified and necessary to the general public. This has been done so many times now that it's incredible people keep falling for it.
- ripped_britches 9mo agoLegitimate question - why am I not seeing this in the news? This is horrifying but where is the coverage?
- pandemic_region 9mo agoI checked the reputable newspaper in my country. The only mention of it was on 23/1 where they reported 5000 casualties. EU is going to put together a range of (economic?) sanctions against the regime. US "armada" (quoted from the article) is underway. It was probably the headline article for a couple of hours on the site. I don't remember extended coverage either so I looked it up.
- stefantalpalaru 9mo ago[dead]
- svl 9mo agoFWIW, it's reported in Dutch news - https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2026/01/26/dertigduizend-doden-slachtpartij-iran-zou-gruwelijker-zijn-dan-gedacht-als-het-klopt-a4918655 https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2026/01/26/dertigduizend-doden-sla... - with reference to this time.com article - https://time.com/7357635/more-than-30000-killed-in-iran-say-senior-officials/ https://time.com/7357635/more-than-30000-killed-in-iran-say-... - and a lot of caveats about how the figure can't be verified.
- LightBug1 9mo agoThey're brown, unknown people. What did you expect?
- luplex 9mo agobecause Iran's information control is working - the horrific images and numbers only arrived in the west once the protests were already mostly disbanded. It's not ongoing like e.g. the war in Gaza was, so it can only capture a moment of attention, not a sustained slot.
- dist-epoch 9mo ago[flagged]
- epsters 9mo ago36,500 dead, 300,000 injured, In 2 days? People are buying this? Unarmed protesters tend to flee when the shooting starts and armed protesters shoot back. And all this without heavy weapons? Do people remember what Gaza turned into get to that toll? The actual final toll number is certainly in the thousands But all the numbers being touted in the western press reek of desperation. Lot of the sources are western-backed anti-iranian ngos ( lot of them with cia, mossad and other intelligence ties) which themselves cite dubious sources. IranIntl is itself Saudi-backed and a Mossad asset according to Axios's Barak Ravid, who is himself worked for Israel's Unit 8200. Netanyahu seems to try rope the US into war in the short window before the US mid-terms and the Monarchists seem similarly desperate to show traction to the Trump admin. With Epstein and whatever else that is hanging over Trump's head this is a very dangerous trap.
- poulpy123 9mo agoThe iranian government is criminal, but it's absolutely not believable. The 6 months of the Anfal campaign where Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons killed between 50 and 100k people, the 2 years of the last gaza war with the carpet bombing killed 80k people, the tien an men massacre was in the hundreds, 4 years of civil in birmanie killed 80k people too
- mrexcess 9mo agoNo different than any other war, the powers that be line up to psy op the public to support it. Interesting to see who the players are that are willing to amplify this overt propaganda. Sadly, looks like HN is front and center, right along with Reddit and basically every other mainstream US-based tech/news aggregator.
- lucasRW 9mo agoThe silence of MSM (particularly the BBC) is eye-opening.
- FatalLogic 9mo ago>The silence of MSM (particularly the BBC) is eye-opening. Daily reports from the BBC, and the rate of them is increasing https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cjnwl8q4ggwt https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cjnwl8q4ggwt Some of the headlines- New Iran videos show bodies piled in hospital and snipers on roofs 'I saw people getting shot': Eyewitness tells of Iran protest crackdown An Iranian who got out of the country describes scenes of chaos as security forces opened fire in her home town. Photos leaked to BBC show faces of hundreds killed in Iran's brutal protest crackdown
- lucasRW 9mo agohttps://twitter.com/Saul_Sadka/status/2015820189904814323 https://twitter.com/Saul_Sadka/status/2015820189904814323
- mishaker 9mo agoawesome ! more than 2 years into genocide in Gaza and not a single word on HN. And now a fake news published by a zionist website (iranintl.com is financed and supported by Israel) gets on the first page ! so disgusting.
- kolbe 9mo agoThis entire comment section has a lot of polarizing statements that are unverifiable and can hide behind the fog of truth. Yours is not one. Yours is easily verifiably false: https://www.google.com/search?q=israel+genocide+site:news.ycombinator.com https://www.google.com/search?q=israel+genocide+site:news.yc...
- hit8run 9mo agoThe Islamic Republic represents what happens when Islamism achieves full, unchecked state power. The outcome is monstrous.
- Shorel 9mo agoIt seems protesting a dictatorship, of whatever kind, is pointless and dangerous. Meaning, the people should be able to defend themselves against the violence directed to them.
- TacticalCoder 9mo ago> Meaning, the people should be able to defend themselves against the violence directed to them. Yes. But not just and not mainly from your government: you are way more likely to get killed by criminals and/or terrorists then by law enforcement officers. To put things in perspectice in the US there are more than 20 000 homicides per year. And for women rape and rape attempts are scary, here are the numbers for the UK: https://www.statista.com/statistics/283100/recorded-rape-offences-in-england-and-wales/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/283100/recorded-rape-off... You cannot really compare 36 000+ people getting killed by an islamist regime that rules the country by sharia law with the number of people killed by law enforcement officers in, say, France or the US. Where the number of people being killed by officials, yearly, can be counted on one hand's fingers. In the same vein, you cannot really compared terror attacks like the 2024 one in Russia where 145 people where killed in a theater or the 130 people killed by terrorists at the Bataclan in France or the 70 killed in Nice (my sister was there with her two kids that day and she saw the terrorist and her son is still, to this day, traumatized) with the number of people getting killed by law enforcement officers in a country like France or the US (I'm using these two as an example for they are country where, each year, a few people are killed by law enforcement officers). Unarmed people vs terrorists with kalashnikovs: slaughter. A great many are highly concerned, for example, that there are now sleeping islamists terrorists cells in the EU. Even mainstream media began reporting the concerns. There are regularly arrests and terrorists plots foiled. And Christmas markets and celebrations have been cancelled this year in many european cities because the risk of islamist terror attacks were too high. When a country disarms its people, it doesn't just make them vulnerable to the governement's wrongdoings: it makes them vulnerables to criminals and terrorists too. Which, so far in the western world, is definitely a much bigger threat. Now that said there are more than 10 billion ammo sold, each year, in the US, to civilians. If there's one country where either the government or the terrorists would have a problem should they go "all in", it's the US.
- shevy-java 9mo agoThat article does not explain how the alleged data was acquired.
- stevage 9mo agoOur Editorial Board has now obtained more detailed information provided by the IRGC Intelligence Organization to the Supreme National Security Council. Other state institutions have also received differing figures from other security bodies. However, given the scale of the killings, deliberate concealment, and what appears to be intentional disorder in the registration and transfer of bodies – along with pressure on families and, in some cases, the quiet burial of victims – it appears that even the security agencies themselves do not yet know the precise final death toll. In a report presented on Wednesday, January 21, to the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee seen by Iran International, the number of those killed was listed as at least 27,500. According to sources within Iran’s Interior Ministry who spoke to Iran International on condition of anonymity, a consolidation of figures received from provincial security councils by Tuesday, January 20, showed the death toll had exceeded 30,000. Two informed sources from the Supreme National Security Council also told Iran International that in two recent reports by the IRGC Intelligence Organization, dated January 22 and January 24, the number of those killed was listed as more than 33,000 and more than 36,500 respectively.
- Cthulhu_ 9mo agoYes it does: > [...] newly obtained classified documents, field reports, and accounts from medical staff, witnesses, and victims’ families.
- hearsathought 9mo agoIt was made up. "Iranintl" is literally a propaganda site.
- chaosbolt 9mo agoI heard the number was much higher than that, they massacred 6 million iranians during those protests. I mean, this is the nail in the coffin, I'm removing my hacker news account, this is even worse than reddit in propaganda.
- hersko 9mo ago... Ok? This is not an airport. You do not need to announce your departure. Bye
- DoingIsLearning 9mo agoIrrespective of the accuracy of estimates it will be in the thousands, and most tragicly it will be very young men and women most of whom university educated, the very people that would be the country's tomorrow.
- neuroelectron 9mo agoThe pervasiveness of propaganda isn't really surprising nor is it complicated to recreate especially with today's AI and especially with state actor-scale AI. It really seems more like a test to see how gullible people are when presented with mass confirmation bias and no evidence.
- sepisoad 9mo agoAn iranian expat here. I have been following the news closely, mostly getting my data from my friends in Iran before the internet shutdown and after it was (sort of) lifted. The death toll is way above this number, you have to consider the fact that Iran is a big country with many small cities, and in my city alone (which is very small and rarely has any protest going on) many people have died (i don’t have the exact numbers but it could be anywhere between 100 to 200) and when you put this into perspective you will understand that in scale of the entire country a lot of people have died. I have heard that not only they killed people on the street but they have chased those who fled and killded them at their places or hidings, let alone the killing of the injured ones in hospitals. It’s is a big tragedy and people are reluctant to talk about it because those who are committing this massacre are MUSLIMS and support PALESTINE so this is a moral dilemma for the left lovers! because they see Mullah’s regime as one of their biggest allies when it comes to attack West/Israel/Free market It’s a shame that all those activist that would shred themselves for Palestine are absolutely quite about Iran
- justonceokay 9mo agolol @ “west/israel/free market”. I think you have an aliasing bug. Why would leftists (or anyone) be confused who the bad guy is here? Generally as a rule of thumb for international conflict you can count on the left to be on the side of the underdog, no matter how naive a view that may be in a given circumstance.
- dorian-graph 9mo ago> Why would leftists (or anyone) be confused who the bad guy is here? Because there are literally pro-Palestine protests that have supporters of Iran's supreme leader[1]. I've seen a lot of comments and sentiment from leftists in support of Iran. What bug(s) do you have, that you didn't know this? [1]: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-04/international-reactions-to-pro-palestinian-march-sydney-bridge/105609688 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-04/international-reactio...
- justonceokay 9mo ago
- zrn900 9mo agoThe new Nayirah Lie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony
- Maken 9mo agoEven if there is exaggeration or inaccuracy in the reporting, the repression happening in Iran is certainly real and not a complete fabrication.
- jackb4040 9mo ago"It's fine if we lie because we're the good guys"
- zrn900 9mo agoThat's exactly what a lot of people said in 2003. Angloamerican propaganda does character assassination by reporting with double standards to demonize a target. After 5 to 10 years, those who feed on it are ripe for believing any 'bad deed' could have been done by Angloamerica's enemy because 'it is evil'. Meanwhile, the US is censoring TikTok on behalf of a genocidal settler-colonial regime because its genocidal president asked for it in 2025. And that very US is the source of all these 'truths'.
- alphawhisky 9mo agoAnother resounding moral defeat for Abrahamic religion. How much longer till everyone is fed up with the crusades?
- koalaman 9mo agoIran and North Korea are evidence that with modern technology, and a ruthless enough autocracy, there is possibly no way out from under it. Technological progress only makes this problem worse. It should highlight the urgency for anybody who loves freedom, human rights, and democracy, to fight the swing towards authoritarianism in the 'free world', before there is no way back.
- 01100011 9mo agoMy cynical take is that this is the reason we're selling so many GPUs to certain foreign governments. Sure, AI is great for vibe coding and making cat videos but it's also amazing for tracking individual sentiment, influencing opinion on social media, creating fake news, and detecting threat networks. "Smart cities" are also Panopticons.
- aesch 9mo agoOne could ask, who is giving Iran and North Korea this technology? Most of it they aren't developing themselves.
- kridsdale1 9mo agoWhy do you say that? Iranian engineers are incredibly talented.
- aesch 9mo agoIt's not meant as a slight against Iranian engineers, I believe Iranian engineers can be as talented as any engineers in the world. I just imagine they may be resource constrained. So the question is more about geo-politics, who stands to gain by transferring technology to the Iranian government that allows them to surveil the Iranian population and maintain absolute control?
- L_226 9mo agoGuess who? https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/international-relations/16-chinese-military-cargo-planes-fly-into-iran-triggering-fears-of-a-major-arms-transfer-ahead-of-us-showdown/ar-AA1UzHjt https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/international-relations/1...
- randcraw 9mo agoSome mainstream coverage of this, at last. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/27/iran-protests-death-toll-disappeared-bodies-mass-burials-30000-dead https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/27/i...
- theptip 9mo agoI’m confused by the “at last”, it’s been consistently covered on The Guardian: iran site:theguardian.com There is a narrative that has been floating around and it seems like a Russian psyop designed to sow discord (not accusing you of being a bot personally), “the lefties are friends with Iran and don’t complain about their attrocities”, which is objectively false. Indeed if you look at independent aggregators the latest article on Iran is more “left leaning” reported: https://ground.news/article/at-least-6-126-people-killed-in-irans-crackdown-on-nationwide-protests-activists-say https://ground.news/article/at-least-6-126-people-killed-in-...
- glorious-cat 9mo agoWhat does this have to do with tech?
- nimonian 9mo agoFrom Hacker News guidelines: > That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. There is a long history of major world events like this being discussed on Hacker News and it is accepted as on topic. There is also a long history of people who haven't read the guidelines asking what they have to do with tech.
- diggyhole 9mo agoYeah but at least they don't live under the fascist US regime. /s
- pcj-github 9mo agoThis is horrific. Iranians/Persians are some of the brightest and warmest people that have a culture spanning back thousands of years. May the young people in Iran persist and overcome this brutal regime of terror.
- coryrc 9mo agoUnfortunately that history includes nearly perfecting the use of torture thousands of years ago. https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/torture-achaemenid-period/ https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/torture-achaemenid-pe...
- E-Reverance 9mo agoThis says very little about the quality of the culture averaged over those thousands of years Quit cherrypicking for the sake of being an edgelord
- coryrc 9mo agoYou don't think history has an effect on the present? I didn't even bring up SAVAK or Basij.
- E-Reverance 9mo agoYou haven't shown that the lineage is connected to modern Persian people nor whether it is particularly prominent in Persian culture as a whole Torture and power preserving/seeking are emergent and universal, nothing particularly Persian about it
- coryrc 9mo agoI feel you must not have met any people from continually-multi-thousand-year-old cultures. I believe Crete was the first country to unilaterally declare itself a part of another country, because being Greek is possibly the strongest and proudest connection they share. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crete#Cretan_State_and_union_with_Greece https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crete#Cretan_State_and_union_w... The Jewish Diaspora take great lengths to preserve their traditions; you can walk into a synagogue (sharing the same movement) anywhere in the world and it'll be the same as your hometown. The Persians I have known have had a connection to their history similarly, for better or for worse. Their views and values are a little different than, say, your average Euro-mutt "white" American -- and I think we "white" Americans have some lessons we could take about culture, identity, and values.
- BradK 9mo ago[dead]
- dataminer 9mo agoThe loss of life is extremely tragic, every single loss is devastating and is a family suffering forever. Hoping that people of Iran get freedom, peace and prosperity.
- krunck 9mo ago> Hoping that people of Iran get freedom, peace and prosperity. Yes, but not the kind delivered in an American/Israeli bomb.
- hearsathought 9mo agoIs "iranintl" the "iranian" equivalent of all the garbage "ukraineintl" propaganda sites? Why is dang and hn allowing this garbage to stay up on the frontpage for days?
- anonair 9mo agoI don't know what is really happening in Iran, but after Gaza genocide I don't trust a damn word from mainstream western media.
- MrSkelter 9mo agoIt’s telling that non tech stories about Palestine are routinely flagged here but non tech stories about Iran are let through.