Thousands killed in Iran protests: ‘Savagery that is hard to fathom’

Read time: 4 mins

In brief…

• The official death toll from protests in Iran is 2,000, with unconfirmed reports of this number being as high as 12,000. The News Agents describe the situation as savage, brutal and unbelievable.
• British-Iranian journalist Ali Hamedani tells Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall that people inside Iran want help from the outside world – but does that extend to air strikes from Donald Trump’s America?
• The News Agents say Trump likely feels emboldened by his recent invasion of Venezuela, but may be hesitant to act in order to avoid a legacy like George W Bush earned after the Iraq War.

What’s the story?

It has been called "the largest killing in Iran’s contemporary history".

An unconfirmed 12,000 people were killed during protests across Iran on 8-9 January 2026, according to reporting by Iran International, while official data currently places the number of deaths at 2,000, including government troops.

“You keep thinking, it cannot get any worse,” says Jon Sopel, adding these numbers are “unbelievable”.

“It is Iranians firing on Iranians, and these are people that are just protesting about the cost of living and wanting a change of government.

“The brutality and the savagery being meted out by Ali Khamenei's men is just something that is actually quite hard to fathom.”

Iranian officials blame US and Israeli interference for the protests, and government's military response, which began as a stand against the country's poor economy and have grown to become nationwide calls to end the rule of the Islamic Regime.

America has yet to officially intervene in the situation, with Donald Trump previously claiming it would take a stand if more civilians were killed, and now saying America's military is looking into "very strong options" on the situation, telling Iranian protestors that “help is on the way”. He has imposed a 25% tariff on all US imports from countries which trade with Iran.

“What makes Iran really unusual today, is tension between the state – which is ultra conservative, controlling, very religious – and its population, which is young, urban, middle class, and often more liberal by temperament,” says Lewis Goodall.

“That's not to say the regime doesn't have support, because it really does, but it has got a highly educated population, which is globally connected, and that is what we're seeing play out now.”

What do the people of Iran want?

Ali Hamedani, a British-Iranian journalist who left Iran after facing torture under the Islamic Regime due to his sexuality, tells The News Agents that because of internet access and government-imposed lack of phone signal, the only way of finding out what's going on has been through speaking with people fleeing the country.

He has been told that government forces have opened fire on protesters without provocation.

Crowds have reportedly been chanting "death to the dictator" at protests inside Iran, but Hamedani says this is nothing new, and has been heard during previous uprisings.

“What was not clear was what they wanted next. This round is the first that you keep hearing the slogan ‘Long live the King, the Shah’,” Hamedani says.

"The Shah is the symbol of Iran, which was wealthy, which had a good reputation around the world, which was connected to the world, which was modern."

Iran, under the leadership of The Pahlavi Dynasty until the 1979 revolution, was a more liberal and tolerant society, but was also considered a dictatorship.

"No one claims that it was a democratic country at the time, but at least it was connected to the world," Hamedani adds.

"But people were not suffering from poverty."

Signs have been seen at some protests with slogans asking Trump for help – and Hamedani says that from speaking with those who have escaped, he can see why.

"People are getting killed on Iranian streets," he says.

"I think I understand why they want help from the outside world."

Will Trump bomb Iran?

Trump, and America, Lewis Goodall says, appears to be in an “expansive mood” and believes he will be riding high from what he considers a successful military operation in Venezuela.

Striking Iran, however, would be a more difficult and complicated assault, with Lewis saying the political implication of US action could be used to strengthen the position of the Islamic Regime.

“The Iranian government has sought to link the protesters with the Americans and with the West, and say that they are stooges of the West, that they're acting on behalf of the West, and are trying to undermine the country,” he says.

Jon Sopel says Trump may hesitate to strike for fear of being remembered in a similar way to George W Bush after his actions in the Iraq War.

“Trump doesn't want to get himself into an Iraq 2003 position where if you break it, you own it,” he says.

“Does he want to be seen as George W Bush was, as having had a plan to get rid of something, but no plan of what to put in its place?”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.