Amnesty International puts protest toll at 106

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Days of protests in Iran over rising fuel prices and a subsequent government crackdown have killed at least 106 people across the Islamic Republic, Amnesty International said Tuesday, citing “credible reports.”

Iran’s government has not released a toll of those arrested, injured or killed in the protests that began Friday and spread quickly across at least 100 cities and towns.

But it disputed Amnesty’s report through its mission to the United Nations, calling it “baseless allegations and fabricated figures.”

However, a UN agency earlier said it feared the unrest may have killed “a significant number of people.” Amnesty cited “credible reports” for its tally and said it “believes that the real death toll may be much higher, with some reports suggesting as many as 200 have been killed.”

Authorities shut down internet access to the outside world Saturday.

That has left only state media and government officials to tell their story. State TV showed video Tuesday of burned Korans at a mosque in the suburbs of the capital Tehran, as well as pro-government rallies, part of its efforts to both demonize and minimize the protests.

Absent in the coverage, though, was an acknowledgment of what sparked the demonstrations. The jump in gasoline prices represents yet another burden on Iranians who have suffered through a painful currency collapse, following President Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the U.S. from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and the reimposition of crippling U.S. economic sanctions.

Relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani has promised that the fuel price increase will be used to fund new subsidies for poor families. But the decision has unleashed widespread anger among Iranians like Maryam Kazemi, a 29-yearold accountant in the southern Tehran suburb of Khaniabad, who said the new cost of fuel was “putting pressure on ordinary people.”

“It was a bad decision at a bad time. The economic situation has long been difficult for people, and Rouhani unexpectedly implemented the decision on fuel,” she said.

Amnesty said it gathered its figures from interviewing journalists and human rights activists, then crosschecked the information. In its breakdown, it showed the hardest-hit areas as western Kermanshah Province and the oil-rich southwestern Khuzestan Province. Many online videos released before the internet outage showed unrest there.

“Video footage shows security forces using firearms, water cannons and tear gas to disperse protests and beating demonstrators with batons,” Amnesty said. “Images of bullet casings left on the ground afterwards, as well as the resulting high death toll, indicate that they used live ammunition.” Amnesty, citing witnesses corroborated by video footage, said snipers also shot into people from rooftops and, in one case, from a helicopter.

So far, scattered reports in state-run and semiofficial media have reported only six deaths.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights earlier issued a statement saying it was “deeply concerned” about reports of live ammunition being used against demonstrators. It also urged protesters to demonstrate peacefully.

“We are especially alarmed that the use of live ammunition has allegedly caused a significant number of deaths across the country,” spokesman Rupert Colville said.

Colville added that it has been “extremely difficult” to verify the overall death toll.