Iranian security forces may have killed as many as 1,000 citizens, including at least 12 children, during the latest anti-government protests in Iran said U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook on Thursday.
“This is the worst political crisis the regime has faced in its 40 years,” he told reporters at the U.S. State Department on Wednesday.
Captured on the first day of protests. pic.twitter.com/bddnqdsTs6
— IRAN PROTEST (@iranprotest2019)
“Look, they even jail and murder environmentalists when they organize, like the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation,” Hook said.
He added that the State Department has been receiving tips, including videos, from about 32,000 people showing the brutality behind regime crackdown of the protests.
Some of those videos show the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps forces (IRGC) shooting demonstrators with bullets from machine guns, and then loading the bodies onto trucks.
We gathered this voice message of a protestor from one of our sources. The iranian people have a voice, but they are being overlooked. Share, raise awareness. pic.twitter.com/xLeDwszASZ
— IRAN PROTEST (@iranprotest2019)
Internet access continues to be spotty at best in the country, with United States technicians attempting to “facilitate communication,” Hook told reporters.
He also announced the United States is offering $15 million as part of the State Department’s ‘Rewards for Justice Program’ for information on IRGC Quds Force operative Abdul Reza Shahlai.
The IRGC has been declared a “foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the United States, and Shahlai, as a member of that terrorist organization, has been sanctioned by the United States.
JNS contributed to this report.