According to international NGOs, more than 2,400 people have already been killed by Iranian security authorities in the repression of protests that began in late December due to the economic crisis in the Persian country, but whose demands now include the fall of the Islamic regime.
Reports on social media and from health professionals indicate that the response of the Ayatollah dictatorship has been even more violent than what occurred after the protests of 2022 and 2023, which were motivated by the murder of young Mahsa Amini by the so-called Customs Police, after she was arrested for disrespecting the rules for wearing the hijab, the Islamic veil.
On social media, recent videos showed large rows of body bags in front of a morgue in Tehran. The British broadcaster BBC counted around 180 body bags in these images.
In a report to the news website IranWire, shared with the American broadcaster CNN, an Iranian doctor (who has already left the country, but did not want to be identified because his family members remain in Iran) described a horror scene in the hospital where he treated injured protesters.
“I have seen what we call a ‘mass casualty’ situation in medicine. This occurs when your capacity and resources to provide services are insufficient to serve your patient population,” said the healthcare professional.
The doctor reported that he and other professionals at the hospital had to choose which patients to try to save, based on who was most likely to survive until operating rooms became available.
He also stated that he saw blood in the streets near his home and that colleagues told him that several people shot at close range in the face had been hospitalized.
“On Friday [9] At night, all the beds were occupied,” said the doctor. “Life is at a standstill. Nobody is fine. Not even the hope that spreads abroad exists inside Iran. Everyone is trapped in terror, helplessness and with only a thread of hope”, added the professional.
Messages from three doctors sent to the British newspaper The Guardian described that the bullet wounds of the protesters treated were mainly in the eyes and head.
“[As forças de segurança] They are deliberately shooting in the head and eyes. They want to hurt the head and eyes so that [os manifestantes] can no longer see, the same thing they did [nos protestos de 2022],” said a doctor in Tehran.
The US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran said young men had also been shot in the genitals.
“The evidence shows that, even when using ‘less lethal’ weapons, the Islamic Republic deliberately targets vital organs, transforming these tools into instruments of systematic mutilation and permanent incapacitation to terrorize protesters,” a spokesperson for the NGO told the Guardian.
