\n \u201cI saw regime forces firing at the people with live bullets,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThe bullets were mainly fired at the belly and downward to the genitals. \u2026 I saw blood on the streets and three dead bodies in a drive of 15 minutes.\u201d The most intense firing was on January 8 and 9, he said.\n <\/p>\n
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\n Farzat is not his real name. CNN met him in the northeastern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya on Friday, just days after smugglers brought him over the towering, snow-capped mountains to Iraq. He spoke on the condition that CNN not show his face and use only the pseudonym he provided for fear of retribution.\n <\/p>\n
\n Soft-spoken and in his mid-30s, Farzat is from Iran\u2019s Kurdish minority, which makes up about 10% of the population. He hails from eastern Iran but lived for years in the Tehran area.\n <\/p>\n
\n With Iran almost 10 days into a near-total internet and telecommunications blackout<\/a> \u2014 and international journalists not granted access to the country \u2014 the accounts of people like Farzat are critical in trying to understand events in Iran.\n <\/p>\n \n He said he participated in the wave of protests that shook Iran in 2022<\/a> following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the religious police. The government crackdown then was brutal, he recalled, but pales in comparison to the latest unrest<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The security forces \u201cinitially used rubber bullets in 2022. This time they went directly to shooting at protesters with live bullets,\u201d he said. \u201cIn one small street (in Karaj), the security forces killed at least six protesters, as well as a young woman who was shot and killed as she chanted from her balcony.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n According to an eyewitness account reported by Amnesty International<\/a>, one hospital in Karaj received more than 80 bodies on the night of January 8.\n <\/p>\n \n Nearly 3,000 people have been killed across the country since the start of Iran\u2019s crackdown on dissent, according to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). CNN cannot independently confirm those figures.\n <\/p>\n \n Compared to 2022, the depth of rage and frustration is of a different order, Farzat said. \u201cThe protesters were so angry they destroyed all symbols and signs of the regime,\u201d he recounted. Even mosques were among their targets, he said.\n <\/p>\n \n He shrugged off US President Donald Trump\u2019s vow that \u201chelp is on its way<\/a>,\u201d skeptical of the promises of a superpower with a checkered past for many Iranians.\n <\/p>\n