LONDON, July 16 (UPI) -- The number of demonstrators who died in post-election skirmishes with Iranian government forces may amount to a massacre, human-rights groups claim.
Iran witnessed some of its most violent demonstrations since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 as protests mounted over the disputed victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 contest.
Iranian official figures put the total number dead in the post-election violence at around 20. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, citing eyewitness accounts, tells London's Guardian newspaper, however, the number of fatalities is in the hundreds.
"It's hard to put a figure on it because most of the families involved are scared to talk," said Aaron Rhodes of the campaign. "But if you put together the evidence of the families that have spoken, along with eyewitness reports and data from hospitals, there could be well over a hundred fatalities."
Families report facing government pressure to sign documents saying their relatives died of natural causes or from accidents.
The allegations surface as Iran faces another day of potential unrest Friday as opposition leader Mir Hossien Mousavi is expected to make an appearance during the Friday prayers delivered by his supporter and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani.
