Forensic examinations have revealed Israeli military-grade ammunition embedded in the bodies of children killed during recent rioting in Iran, Russian news agency TASS reported on 21 January, citing Iranian security sources.
The source described the case of an eight-year-old girl in Isfahan who was fatally shot while out shopping with her family during the unrest. She was hit in the stomach, chin, and back of the head, with forensic analysis confirming the bullets were Israeli military-grade.
Another incident involved three-year-old Melina Asadi, who was killed on the evening of 7 January 2026 in Kermanshah while returning with her father from a pharmacy.
The child was shot from behind, with the source attributing the attack to armed terrorists.
The unrest began on 29 December 2025 following street protests sparked by a sharp fall in the Iranian rial.
An unnamed Iranian official recently told Reuters that authorities had confirmed at least 5,000 deaths, including around 500 members of the security forces, revising earlier mid-January estimates that had placed the toll at roughly 2,000.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei directly blamed the US and Israel for the killing of “several thousand” people during the unrest, saying actors “linked to Israel and the US caused massive damages and killed several thousand.”
In a nationally broadcast address on 17 January, he said, “We do consider the US president a criminal,” adding that those responsible “will not go unpunished,” while stressing that Tehran would not be drawn into a wider war.
On 13 January, Iranian police announced the detention of nearly 300 people accused of property damage and attacks on police officers.
Iranian Kurdish separatist group, the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), admitted to carrying out armed attacks against Iranian security forces during recent unrest, portraying the actions as support for street protests.
Speaking to AP, a PAK representative said the group provided financial backing and launched operations in several western provinces after claiming that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeted demonstrators, asserting that the strikes caused “significant damage” to state forces.
Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh accused the US and Israel of directly orchestrating recent violent unrest, saying Tehran holds “precise intelligence” that Washington and Tel Aviv coordinated separatist and armed networks to destabilize the country.
He said the plot relied on arms smuggling, financing, and logistics to fracture Iran under a US-Israeli “balkanization” plan.
Officials and pro-government outlets have cited death tolls ranging from the low thousands to several thousand, emphasizing the hundreds of security personnel killed and asserting that the situation was largely contained, with casualties framed as victims of external interference rather than state action.
