New Iran videos show bodies piled in hospital: Report
What's the story
Newly verified videos from Iran show a gruesome crackdown on protesters, with bodies piled up in hospitals and snipers on rooftops. The footage was filmed during nationwide protests believed to be from January 8 and 9. While economic issues were the immediate trigger for the protests, they galvanized into a broad anti-regime sentiment. Multiple clips that BBC Verify and BBC Persian claimed to have analyzed showed at least 31 bodies inside Tehranpars hospital's mortuary in east Tehran.
Protest tactics
Protesters attempt to evade surveillance, armed men seen
The videos also show protesters disabling CCTV cameras in Tehran, evading the state's heavy surveillance infrastructure. In a video shot from a high-rise building in the southeastern city of Kerman, armed men are seen in military uniforms firing weapons on a road, although their target is not visible. A small fire burns in the middle of the road as protesters chant in the background.
Armed presence
Snipers spotted on rooftops in Mashhad
Another footage from Mashhad shows two men dressed in black on a rooftop. One man stands next to a large rifle and talks on the phone while the other crouches smoking. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reports nearly 6,000 people, including 5,633 protesters, have been killed since the unrest began on December 28.
Communication shutdown
Internet blackout hinders documentation of protests
The Iranian authorities have imposed a near-total internet blackout since January 8, making it difficult to document the scale of the crackdown. Despite this, the BBC claimed that some have accessed the internet briefly through "SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet and virtual private networks (VPNs)." Amid the crisis, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) warns that the death toll could exceed 25,000.