Hengaw's 9th casualty report is overdue by five or more days. The organisation had been publishing on a regular cycle since the war began. Its last confirmed figure, 6,900 killed through Day 29 , is a floor, not a ceiling. Hengaw had previously gone silent for five days in late March . That the war's only independent casualty monitor cannot, or will not, publish should be read as a figure in its own right.
18APR
Hengaw Casualty Monitor Silent for Five Days
1 min read
14:57UTC
The war's only independent casualty monitor has gone quiet. The last confirmed figure of 6,900 killed is a floor.
ConflictDeveloping
Key takeaway
What the independent casualty monitor is not telling us is itself evidence.
Deep Analysis
In plain English
Hengaw is an independent human rights organisation that monitors casualties in Iran. It has been publishing regular reports since the war began, tracking deaths that the Iranian government does not publicly confirm. Its 9th report is now more than five days late. The last figure it published was 6,900 killed through Day 29. Five days of war have passed since then with no update. The silence could mean the organisation is being suppressed, that it is overwhelmed, or that the pace of casualties has exceeded its capacity to verify. Any of those explanations suggests the true toll is higher, not lower.
First Reported In
Update #55 · The Last Door Closes
CNN / Al Jazeera / Axios· 2 Apr 2026
Read original →Causes and effects
This Event
Hengaw Casualty Monitor Silent for Five Days
The silence of the only independent casualty source is itself evidence of the war's human toll.
Different Perspectives
Hengaw and Iranian protest detainees
Hengaw documented three secret executions of protest-linked detainees at Isfahan and Karaj on 15 and 16 July, including Mohammad Amini Dehaghani, hanged over a January arson charge with no public trial record. Tehran is carrying out capital punishment against 2026 protesters while global attention stays fixed on the war with the US.
Russia
OFAC named Moscow aviation firm Avratek OOO and its principals Mariya Selina and Vadim Druzhbin directly for the first time in this war's Iran arms track, under an Executive Order 13382 designation issued 15 July. The designation converts years of rhetorical claims about Russian arms supply to Iran into named, sanctionable individuals and a documented company.
Bahrain
Bahrain sounded air-raid sirens during Iran's 14 July Gulf-wide barrage and was struck again in the 16 July Artesh claim against Sheikh Isa air base, home to the US Fifth Fleet. Manama's air-defence stocks were already reported near-exhausted before this second strike claim against the same base in a week.
Kuwait
Kuwait's armed forces intercepted the drones Iran's Army claimed against Ali Al Salem air base on 16 July and separately reported intercepting missiles and drones in Iran's Gulf-wide barrage on 14 July. Kuwait now absorbs strikes from two rival Iranian commands while hosting Camp Arifjan, the US logistics base Iran also claims to have destroyed.
Iran (Artesh and IRGC)
Iran's regular Army claimed the 16 July drone strikes on Kuwait's Ali Al Salem and Bahrain's Sheikh Isa air bases under its own banner, Operation Saeqeh phase ten, while the IRGC separately claimed a mine strike closing Hormuz on 18 July. Two Iranian institutions are now claiming parallel operations, with neither claim confirmed by Kuwait, Bahrain or CENTCOM.
United States
CENTCOM bombed the interior cities of Ahvaz and Yazd for the first time overnight into 17 July, Marines began boarding vessels including the tanker Wen Yao, and Treasury let General License X1 lapse at 12:01am the same day. Washington closed every remaining channel for de-escalation without a new executive action, a posture of attrition rather than a wind-down.