In Iran, a series of massacres may be taking place out of sight. More than 12,000 people are thought dead as anti-regime protests enter their third week, according to news reports from the country on Tuesday.

The protests, which began in late December, initially centered on economic issues but have grown in scope and scale. Their intensity has raised the prospect that Iran’s regime could be losing its grip on power after almost half a century — and has resulted in a horrifying response by Iranian security forces. President Donald Trump has also involved the US in the situation, writing in a post to social media on Tuesday that Iranians should “KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS…HELP IS ON THE WAY.”

If accurate, the death toll would put the Iranian regime’s crackdown on a scale the region has not seen since Syria’s former president, Hafez al-Assad, killed thousands of dissidents in 1982; it would mean more Iranians have been killed in just over two weeks than even the highest casualty numbers estimated after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

Here’s what we know:

What’s happening?

Facts from on the ground in Iran are incredibly scarce right now due to an ongoing, almost-total internet blackout across the country, but the veil lifted slightly on Tuesday when some Iranians were able to place calls outside of the country. The little we have learned paints an alarming picture of the regime response: According to CBS News, at least 12,000 — and potentially as many 20,000 — people have been killed so far.

Some verified counts from international human rights groups are lower, around

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