More than 12,000 people are feared dead in Iran after a sweeping crackdown on anti-regime protests, with CBS News reporting on Tuesday that sources inside and outside the country believe the toll could be as high as 20,000 and newly verified video showing hundreds of bodies stacked at a morgue near Tehran.

The true scope of the bloodshed has been obscured by a near-total shutdown of internet and phone service imposed by Iran’s rulers over the past five days, with only limited outgoing calls allowing word of the killings to leak out, according to the report.

Activist networks citing medical sources around the country told the network they now believe the death toll stands at a minimum of 12,000 and could reach 20,000, even as an unnamed Iranian official told Reuters some 2,000 people had been killed since the unrest erupted Dec. 28.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said on Tuesday that it has confirmed 2,403 protester deaths, and that 18,434 people have been detained. HRANA also said that 1,134 people with severe injuries have been reported.

In one indication of the scale of the crackdown, CBS News reported it had verified video posted online Tuesday showing at least 366 and likely more than 400 bodies of slain protesters crammed into a morgue in a Tehran suburb, many bearing gunshot, shotgun and other severe wounds as relatives crowded around trying to identify them.

Iran has combined advanced surveillance technology, communications blackouts and swift paramilitary crackdowns to suppress the nationwide protests, in what analysts described as a high-tech evolution of its long-standing tactics to crush dissent, CNN reported Tuesday.

The regime used drones, digital monitoring and military-grade jamming equipment to identify demonstrators and cut off internet access, while casting protesters as foreign-backed agents in the aftermath of last summer’s war with Israel. The ensuing crackdown left hundreds dead and thousands detained in what experts said may be one of the deadliest waves of unrest since Iran’s 1979 revolution, according to CNN.

Even under the blackout, users of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service in Iran were able to get online for free on Tuesday as SpaceX quietly waived fees amid a near-total communications blackout imposed during mass anti-government protests, according to U.S.-based tech nonprofits that assist Iranians with web access.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Iranians to continue protesting and said that he has halted talks with regime officials.

“Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Iran has warned neighboring countries that U.S. military bases on their soil would be targeted if Washington launches strikes over the protests, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday, saying Tehran has urged states such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey to prevent any U.S. intervention.

Some personnel were advised to depart the U.S. military’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar by Wednesday evening, three diplomats familiar with the matter told Reuters. The U.S. Embassy in Doha did not immediately comment. The move comes as Israel’s official “Wing of Zion” aircraft departed for an undisclosed destination, Kan News reported.

Iranian regime representatives again on Tuesday accused the United States and Israel of fomenting the unrest, with Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid responding to Trump’s social media post in a letter to the U.N. Security Council, writing that “the United States and the Israeli regime bear direct and undeniable legal responsibility for the resulting loss of innocent civilian lives, particularly among the youth.”

European officials believe any imminent U.S. strike on Iran would likely focus on security forces and organizations blamed for killing protesters rather than nuclear facilities, according to a report in The Washington Post. Two European officials said Washington has asked their governments to share intelligence on potential targets inside Iran, while a third said Tehran’s leaders understand Trump could face backlash from his domestic base if he orders military action and are seeking negotiations to buy time.

While the White House said that the president is putting a range of possible options on the table regarding action on Iran, Israeli and Arab officials privately told the Trump administration in recent days to hold off on a large-scale military attack, NBC News reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.

The officials reportedly told U.S. interlocutors they doubt the regime is yet weak enough for such action to be decisive and suggested it may be better to wait until Tehran is under greater strain, even as they acknowledged the situation on the ground is shifting rapidly.

The nationwide unrest in Iran erupted in late December over soaring inflation and the collapse of the rial, which has plunged to around 1.46 million to the dollar, and quickly spread from Tehran’s Grand Bazaar to universities and cities across all 31 provinces, according to HRANA.

The group says protests have broken out in 614 locations, with strikes shuttering markets and businesses in several commercial hubs as economic grievances have morphed into open calls to end clerical rule.

The unrest comes as the regime struggles under long‑running U.S. sanctions, the recent U.N. snapback of nuclear‑related sanctions and mounting strains on water and energy systems, which were aggravated by Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear and energy infrastructure last June.