Tehran, Jan 14: The death toll from nationwide protests in Iran surpassed 2,000 people on Tuesday, activists said, and Iranians made phone calls abroad for the first time in days after authorities severed communications during a crackdown on demonstrators.The number of dead climbed to at least 2,003, as reported by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. That figure dwarfs the death toll from any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The demonstrations began a little over two weeks ago in anger over Iran’s ailing economy and soon targeted the theocracy, particularly 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian state television offered the first official acknowledgment of the high death toll, saying the country had “a lot of martyrs.”