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Motorists stopping their vehicles on the highway on November 16, 2019, in Tehran to protest against the rise in gas prices. Nazanin Tabatabaee / WANA via REUTERS

1,500 people were reportedly killed during protests in November in Iran, according to Reuters. The popular movement was violently suppressed by the authorities. This assessment greatly exceeds the figures put forward so far by human rights organizations.

These are three officials of the Iranian Interior Ministry who reveal these figures to Reuters. These Iranian officials, anonymous for obvious security reasons, had access to information gathered from the police, hospitals and morgues.

Of the 1,500 dead, almost a third of the victims are said to be women. Twenty adolescents were also reported to have died during the crackdown. The Reuters investigation points to the bloodiest crackdown on protesters since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Until then, other estimates had been circulated. In a report published in mid-December , Amnesty International reported at least 304 deaths. In Washington, the State Department spoke of a toll that could exceed the 1,000 people killed.

200,000 people participate in " troubles "

Tehran rejects these accusations altogether and characterizes them as false information. The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not respond to requests on this subject.

The Revolutionary Guards declined to comment on this report. The Iranian interior minister said on November 27 that more than 140 government sites had been burned down, as well as hundreds of banks and dozens of gas stations. In addition, 50 bases used by the security forces were also attacked, according to comments reported by the Iranian news agency IRNA. The minister said up to 200,000 people have participated in the unrest nationwide.

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In the Islamic Republic last November, a surprise rise in the price of gasoline had sparked major protests . Very quickly, the protest spread to the capital and turned into an uprising against the regime.

Videos posted on social networks even show Iranians burning the portrait of the supreme guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

( With Reuters )