Informed sources inside Iran told Alhurra that Iranian security forces have used live ammunition against demonstrators protesting the country’s worsening economic conditions, particularly in Ilam Province in western Iran.
Rafiq Banahi, a leader in the group Jiyanewey Kurdistan, told Alhurra that “Iranian security services used live ammunition extensively against demonstrators in Ilam. The excessive violence claimed the lives of at least 11 protesters and activists in Ilam alone,” as of the time of preparing this report.
Jiyanewey Kurdistan is one of the grassroots groups that emerged from the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that swept Iran in 2022 and 2023. The group relies on its teams deployed across Iranian cities at protest sites and focuses on treating injured demonstrators during protests, documenting human rights violations, and providing support to detained protesters and their families.
Banahi said the authorities in Tehran fear the protests could spread to all cities across the country, particularly in Kurdistan and Baluchistan. He noted that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has turned cities in Iranian Kurdistan into military zones and significantly increased the deployment of its forces there.
Iranian security forces stormed Khomeini Hospital in central Ilam on Sunday evening in search of injured protesters in order to arrest them.
Arzu, a pseudonym used by a doctor working at Khomeini Hospital, told Alhurra: “Security forces entered the hospital by force and in large numbers. They stormed the corridors after smashing the door we had closed to prevent the arrest of the wounded, searched all the rooms, and detained about 35 protesters who were receiving treatment at the hospital. They also assaulted medical staff who tried to prevent them from arresting the injured protestors.”
Arzu said that members of the Revolutionary Guard and the intelligence services have raided several hospitals in Ilam and other cities in recent days in search of protesters, adding that large numbers of wounded demonstrators are avoiding hospitals out of fear of arrest.
Iranians continue to stage widespread protests in most cities, particularly in the capital Tehran and the provinces of Fars, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Ilam, Lorestan, Yasuj, and Ahvaz.
Iran’s efforts to suppress the anti-government protests have hit a snag following a threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to intervene in support of the demonstrators, officials and informed sources told Reuters on Monday.
One day before U.S. special forces arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife on January 3 and transferred them to New York, President Trump warned in a social media post that if Iran’s leadership killed protesters who had taken to the streets since Dec. 28, the United States “would come to their aid.” At least 17 people have been killed so far in the protests.
