Analysis of a Night of Violence

On the night of the 18th,

one thing, an account we heard from multiple sources,

is that in many parts of the city, due to

the crowds of people, the suppressive forces would show up facing them,

deployed just a few meters away. But the crowd was so massive

that the suppressive forces retreated, and many people's

initial impression was that maybe they were divided among themselves.

I don't know, they didn't know they were— some didn't know they were to kill, or at first

they weren't supposed to slaughter, and only decided to slaughter later.

No, it's none of these. It w-w-wasn't really the main reason.

The order that night, from 18:00, 8:00, 9:00 p.m., was an order to massacre.

Within an hour or two, mass killings begin.

Even in those first hours, killings are taking place.

An hour later, the massacres intensify. So the order was to kill.

So why, in parts of the city that were not few, do we repeatedly

hear of the suppressive forces retreating? That is the crux of the story.

There are forces deployed with snipers.

The main duty of the repressive forces that night, which,

by the way, is brought up because of this audio file we've received,

the main duty of the repressive forces on the streets was to direct

the people

toward an area

where a cordon of these very

sniper units were stationed.

This was the tragedy that occurred that night.

When people gather in a spot and see no repressive forces facing them,

they stay right there, chanting slogans,

clapping, celebrating, and chanting against the regime.

When the repressive forces deploy before them in numbers far

smaller than the crowd, after a few minutes,

those repressive forces slowly begin to retreat and essentially flee.

When they start fleeing, the people gain more courage,

advance toward them, throw stones at them, and chase after them.

That's it.

This exact situation in many parts of Tehran was that death trap.

created. They would advance and retreat,

retreating to a place where their

sniper

forces had been stationed.

In practice, through a series of tactics,

they led the people where they wanted,

and there, the people were massacred.

Piecing together these reports and videos

reminded us of the important point that

on that ominous night,

many of these retreats ultimately led to the massacre of the people.

Through deceptive operations, they made people feel as though they'd

emerged from their embankment

to attack the enemy's. They had designed their own embankment

to appear easy to capture. When the people got close,

the massacre began.