U.S. says Iran may have killed up to 1,000 protesters

Image: Iranian protesters
Iranian protesters gather around a burning motorcycle during a demonstration against an increase in gasoline prices in the central city of Isfahan, on Nov. 16. Copyright AFP - Getty Images file
By Abigail Williams and Saphora Smith and Robert Windrem and Associated Press with NBC News World News
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Some Iranian experts inside the U.S. government have expressed caution about reporting on the death toll in the demonstrations.

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WASHINGTON — The U.S.'s special representative for Iran Brian Hook has said that more than 1,000 Iranian citizens may have been killed in recent protests.On Thursday, Hook told reporters that the U.S. assessment, which was higher than previous reports by news organizations and rights groups, was based on crowd sourcing and intelligence reports."We know for certain it is many, many hundreds," he said.Iran has disputed any figures on the death toll at this stage as "purely speculative" and "highly inaccurate."NBC News could not verify numbers of protesters killed in nationwide demonstrations that broke out on Nov. 15 in response to a 50 percent hike in gas prices.

People protest against increased gas price, on a highway in Tehran, Iran Nov. 16.
People protest against increased gas price, on a highway in Tehran, Iran Nov. 16.Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANA

Amnesty International reportedearlier this week that more than 200 people had been killed in the demonstrations and Human Rights Watch reported last month that more than 140 people had been killed.Some Iranian experts inside the U.S. government have expressed caution about reporting on the death toll in the protests. While not denying that hundreds may have been killed, one expert noted that early counts are often inaccurate and are prone to double-counting. That caution, he said, has been relayed to U.S. policymakers.Hook said that in addition to the hundreds allegedly killed and thousands injured, at least 7,000 protesters had been detained in Iran's prisons.He went into detail about a reported incident in which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite branch of the Iranian military, allegedly opened fire on protesters killing as many as 100 people in a city in southwestern Iran.Hook said the U.S. officials had received videos of the incident after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a public request for protesters to share accounts of what was happening with the U.S. through secure channels.Hook did not offer details about how the U.S. verified video of the incident. NBC News could not independently verify the reports.Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for Iran's mission to the United Nations, called the casualty numbers "purely speculative and highly inaccurate."

Iranian protesters gather around a burning motorcycle during a demonstration against an increase in gasoline prices in the central city of Isfahan, on Nov. 16.
Iranian protesters gather around a burning motorcycle during a demonstration against an increase in gasoline prices in the central city of Isfahan, on Nov. 16.AFP - Getty Images file

Miryousefi told NBC News that an investigation into what he called "disturbances" and "those affected, whether injured or killed," was ongoing and that results would be released."The government will also try to compensate people for damages that occurred due to vandalism or foreign-motivated and instigated riots imposed on ordinary citizens," he wrote in an email to NBC News.Iran acknowledged Tuesday that its security forces shot and killed what it called "rioters"in multiple cities — the first time that authorities have offered any sort of accounting for the violence they used to put down the demonstrations, according to the Associated Press.Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called Wednesday for those detained in the protests to be treated with "Islamic mercy.""The faster these cases are considered, the better and those who are suspected of being close to any group should be dealt with in a way that is closer to Islamic mercy," Khamenei said, according to state-run IRNA news agency.Khamenei also said citizens killed in the protests "without playing any part in instigating them" should be considered martyrs and their families should receive government stipends.The demonstrations began after authorities raised minimum gasoline prices to 15,000 Iranian rials per liter, an equivalent of about 50 cents a gallon. After a monthly 60-liter quota, it costs 30,000 rials a liter. That's nearly 90 cents a gallon. An average gallon of regular gas in the U.S. costs $2.58 by comparison, according to the AAA.Widespread economic discontent has gripped the country since May last year, when President Donald Trump imposed crushing sanctions after unilaterally withdrawing from Tehran's nuclear dealwith world powers.Tensions between Iran and the U.S. and its allies in the Gulf have been growing, with the Pentagon saying on Thursday that the U.S. was formulating plans to potentially deploy more U.S. troops to the Middle East in response to a growing threat from Tehran."The secretary and others are continuing to look at that threat picture and have the ability to dynamically adjust our force posture," John Rood, defense undersecretary for policy, told senators, adding that so far no decision has been taken.Abigail Williams reported from Washington, and Saphora Smith reported from London.

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