Machine guns to machetes: Weapons that massacred thousands in Iran

2 hours agoFarzad SeifikaranBBC News PersianMamlekateVerified images showing weaponry used by security forces against protesters Warning: The following story contains graphic details of violence which some readers might find upsetting.A BBC News Persian analysis of hundreds of videos and photographs taken during recent protests in Iran confirms the security forces' use of a wide range of weaponry, including machine guns, snipier rifles and shotguns.Protesters were reportedly killed in many of the more than 200 cities where protests had been recorded. While the exact death toll remains unclear, the level of brutality and the deployment of lethal weaponry evidenced in pictures, witness accounts and reports by human rights groups and the media show thousands have been killed across the country.The crackdown on protests - which began over the economy but rapidly escalated - employed a level of violence unprecedented in modern Iranian history."This is the largest mass killing in contemporary Iranian history and one of the largest in the world," Payam Akhavan, an Iranian Canadian former UN prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, told BBC News Persian.The Iranian government has blamed the killings on "rioters and terrorists".But BBC News Persian analysis shows security forces used a number of different weapons on protesters, including:machine gunssniper riflesassault riflesshotgunshandgunspellet-firing paintball gunstear gasmachetesknivesbatonslarge wooden clubsgreen laser sights and pointers (for blinding and targeting)Machine gunsVahid Online / Fars News AgencyBBC News Persian cross-referenced photographs of Tehran's Sadeghiyeh Square with those of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard CorpsFootage from cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, Yazdanshahr, and Shahsavar, verified by BBC News Persian, shows both heavy - such as the DShK - and medium - such as the PK - machine guns mounted on military pickup trucks.The security forces reportedly used these for crowd control and to impose a state of siege.The Vahid Online Telegram channel shared two photographs of a black pickup truck with a machine gun mounted in the back in Tehran's Sadeghiyeh Square on the night of 8 January.BBC News Persian cross-referenced these with photos, published by Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency, of a 2025 military parade, showing nearly identical Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) pickups equipped with the same weapon. Weapons expert Amael Kotlarski, of Janes defence-intelligence company, has identified it as the DShKM model, produced under licence in Iran.Iran InternationalA video of protests in Yazdanshahr shows the muzzle fire of a machine gun mounted on the back of a pickup truckA video of the 9 January protests in Yazdanshahr, published by the Iran International television network, clearly shows protesters coming under sustained machine-gun fire. The gun's massive muzzle fire is visible at the 46-second mark.A representative of Thames Valley Guns, a UK-based company specialising in the expert analysis of military firearms, also told BBC News Persian vehicles equipped with DShK machine guns could be seen in the videos of the protests.MamlekateIn one verified video, someone displays spent cartridge casings from a Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle and a 20mm automatic cannon round, saying security forces had fired them at protestersIn one verified video, someone displays two spent cartridge casings from a Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle and one large spent shell, explaining security forces had fired them at protesters in Tehran's Behesht Square.Thames Valley Guns confirmed the large black projectile was a 20mm automatic cannon round designed to be used against military hardware. And rifling marks on its driving band confirm it had been fired."Ammunition of this nature is intended to defeat structures, vehicles and hardened targets, including lightly armoured personnel carriers," the representative said."They are not engineered for use against personnel, though the consequences of such a strike on a human would be catastrophic."Sniper riflesObtained by BBC News PersianA video from the city of Mashhad, verified by BBC News Persian, shows figures in IRGC-style uniform, on a rooftop, with a Dragunov sniper rifleWitnesses have told BBC News Persian sniper rifles were widely used during the January protests and this is confirmed by the verified footage.One of the videos verified by BBC News Persian, of the 9 January protests in the north-eastern city of Mashhad, shows two figures in black tactical uniforms of the type worn by several branches of the security forces, including the IRGC, on a hotel rooftop. And one of them has a Dragunov sniper rifle (SVD) leaning against a wall next to him.In an interview with Iranian state television, a forensic expert confirmed snipers had killed protesters. On 8 January, a relative of Ebrahim Pourahmadian, from Saqqez, in the western province of Kurdistan, who was in Tehran, working as the caretaker of a building, told BBC News Persian a sniper had shot him in the head, right in front of his child. And photographs obtained by BBC News News Persian of Pourahmadian's body confirm a single precision gunshot wound, in the middle of his forehead.The Thames Valley Guns representative explained the profound psychological impact of a well positioned sniper. "For untrained civilians, the effect is even more severe," the representative said. "Most people have no understanding of how to respond to a distant, unseen threat — and the resulting fear certainly triggers mass panic."Assault riflesSpent cartridge casings from a Kalashnikov-type assault rifle were found on the streetsThe Kalashnikov assault rifle is the standard-issue weapon for all military and law-enforcement branches in Iran. And BBC News Persian has analysed numerous videos showing members of both the police and the IRGC using using AK-47 Kalashnikovs and the Iranian-produced KL variants.One, from the northern city of Amol, on 9 January, shows a security officer aiming and firing a Kalashnikov directly at protesters. And after analysing exclusive images obtained by BBC News Persian of spent casings recovered from the streets, Kotlarski confirmed they were 7.62x39mm rounds - the specific calibre for Kalashnikov-type rifles.ShotgunsVahid OnlineVerified footage from Abadan, western Iran, on 7 January, shows police officers with shotguns deployed on streets during protestsBBC News Persian's investigation confirms the extensive use of shotguns.Verified footage from the western city of Lordegan, on 1 January, and Abadan, also in the west, on 7 January, shows police officers with shotguns deployed on streets during protests. And Kotlarski identified several models, including the Iranian-made Maher shotgun in both standard and short-barrelled configurations.Obtained by BBC News PersianAn exclusive CT-scan image obtained by BBC News Persian shows a metal pellet embedded in a Mashad protester's right eyeball​​As we saw during the crackdown on the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests, the widespread use of shotguns in January resulted in the killing of many protesters and left hundreds, if not thousands, more with permanent eye injuries.Between 9 and 10 January, about 1,000 patients needing emergency surgery for ruptured eyeballs caused by metal pellets arrived at a single eye hospital alone, its head, Dr Ghasem Fakhraei, told the semi-official Iranian Students' News Agency. And BBC News Persian has obtained CT scans and medical records of several wounded protesters from Mashhad, one of which clearly shows a metal pellet embedded in the eye tissue.HandgunsIn two videos from Kermanshah, on 8 January, plainclothes security forces agents are seen wielding at least two types of pistols, which, analysts suggest, resemble the Beretta Model 50 or CZ 75.MachetesVahid OnlineCCTV footage from Tehran shows a plainclothes security agent wielding a machete attacking a female protester, on 8 JanuaryNumerous protesters have told BBC News Persian they were attacked with knives and machetes. Photographs obtained by BBC News Persian of the bodies also reveal machete as well as bullet woundsCCTV footage from Tehran clearly shows plainclothes agents attacking protesters seeking refuge in a block of flats with machetes. Another video from the capital, on 8 January, shows a plainclothes officer hitting a female protester in the head with a machete. Several other security personnel in military uniforms are also visible.BatonsVideos and interviews carried out by BBC News Persianwith the survivors show people being beaten with batons. BBC News Persian verified that one protester, Saghar Seifollahi Fars, was killed in this way and another, Ali Taherkhani, who was first shot, died not because of bullet wounds but from being beaten afterwards by batons and gun butts.