ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iranian authorities have killed at least 3,000 people, including over 40 minors, during the recent nationwide protests, according to a rights watchdog, calling the crackdown systematic and “crimes against humanity.”

Iran has been engulfed in nationwide protests since late last year, as business owners and shopkeepers at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar went on strike and staged demonstrations over the falling value of the Iranian rial against the US dollar. The unrest later spread to other provinces, with chants increasingly targeting the state.

The Oslo-based Hengaw Human Rights Organization in a Saturday report estimated that “actions by government suppression forces” have killed at least 3,000 protesters, of which 44 were under the age of 18, 61 were women, 27 were students, and two were teachers.

At least 136 Kurds, 76 Gilaki, and 56 Lors were among those killed.

The report said a significant number of people had been injured, around 20,000 people had been arrested.

The monitor said after families were able to find their loved ones among “piles of bodies in morgues,” most were forced to claim the killed family members were members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Basij forces or that they were killed by protesters to retrieve the body, otherwise the families had to pay a sum of money.

Authorities also insisted on holding burials in silence and prohibited funerals, “which some families were forced to accept under pressure,” the monitor said.

Tehran has labeled the protesters as “rioters” and agents of the US and Israel, and has described the demonstrations as a continuation of June’s 12-day war.