Iranian Doctor Says Security Forces 'Shooting Inside' Hospitals

A doctor inside Iran has told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that security forces have stormed hospitals and executed wounded protesters amid a brutal state crackdown on nationwide antiestablishment protests.

The doctor, who said she works in a hospital in southern Iran, said members of Iran's security forces had "finished off" protesters who had been admitted to hospital for treatment.

"They killed many [demonstrators], arrested many, and many are on the run," said the doctor, who spoke to Radio Farda on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. "The situation is very bad."

RFE/RL could not independently verify the doctor's claims.

The authorities have shut down the Internet and blocked phone lines, but eyewitness accounts have emerged that suggest the state is waging one of its deadliest-ever crackdowns on street protesters.

The independent US-based rights monitor HRANA said on January 13 that its verified death toll in the protests had risen to 2,003 people, Earlier the same day, Reuters quoted an unnamed Iranian official reporting the number of deaths at around 2,000.

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Scores Of Bodies Outside Morgue In Tehran Amid Deadly Iran Protests

Iranian security forces have used brute force, including firing live ammunition at protesters, according to videos verified by RFE/RL and testimony from eyewitnesses.

'They're Killing Everyone'

Hospitals across Iran have been flooded with the dead and wounded, according to doctors and nurses inside the country of some 92 million people.

"It's a horrible situation, almost everywhere is closed," a nurse living in the capital, Tehran, told Radio Farda. "There are many people with eye injuries. People say they don't want this establishment. They're killing everyone."

Human rights organizations have documented the use of metal pellets fired from shotguns, with security forces deliberately targeting the eyes and heads of protesters.

The doctor in southern Iran said the protests have "died down" after the authorities launched a large-scale crackdown in major cities, including in Tehran, on January 8 and 9.

The protests were sparked by spiraling inflation and a freefall of the national currency but have since snowballed into the biggest threat to Iran's clerical rulers since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

A man in the city of Karaj, near Tehran, said he witnessed security forces directly firing at protesters.

"I saw everyone who was [running], they were falling on the ground, [security forces] were shooting," said the man, who spoke to Radio Farda on condition of anonymity. "I don't know what kind of ammunition they were using but it sounded like live ammunition."

He said security forces piled dead protesters into trucks and drove away.

"They didn't care who these people were," he added. "I came home and my wife asked me if I was crying because of tear gas. I told her that I was crying because of the young people [killed]."