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The Mullahs of Iran are Mephistophelian.
The Mullahs of Iran are :
devilish
diabolic
fiendish
satanic
demonic
demoniacal
hellish
infernal
evil
wicked
ungodly
unholy
cacodemonic
I believe the NAZIS in Germany 1933-45, the Hegelian banker experiment, ditched the Geneva Convention and killed people in hospital beds.
The Mullahs are Nazis in that sense.
When a protester in Iran is taken to the hospital, the mullah police follow them to the hospital, and then they execute them in the hospital. No mercy, no questions asked of how they were wounded in a city of 15 million.
Then their bodies are taken to the Morgue:
As of January 2026, Iranian authorities have been reported to demand large sums of money—often referred to by families as "bullet fees" or "ransom"—from relatives to release the bodies of protesters killed during anti-government crackdowns.Here are the specific costs and conditions reported:Amount Demanded: Families are being asked to pay between 700 million and 1 billion Iranian tomans (approximately $5,000 to $7,000 USD or £3,700–£5,200) to receive the bodies of their loved ones.
Per-Bullet Cost: In some cases, authorities reportedly demand payment for each bullet used to kill the relative, with costs ranging from 700 million to 2.5 billion rials per bullet.
Economic Context: These demands are exceptionally high, as an average construction worker in Iran earns less than $100 a month.
Conditions for Release: In addition to the monetary payment, families are often forced to sign waivers agreeing not to hold public funeral ceremonies or to declare that their relative was a "martyr" who died fighting on the government's side.
Consequences of Non-Payment: If families cannot pay, authorities may refuse to release the bodies, with reports of bodies being buried in mass graves.
This practice has been described as a form of economic extraction and a method of repression, with some reports noting it is a recurring tactic used in previous crackdowns, including those in the 1980s.
THIS IS DIABOLICAL
THIS IS WORSE THAN THE NAZI ERA EINSATTSGRUPPEN.
WE MUST QUICKLY BRING THIS EVIL REGIME TO AN END. IN THE 21ST CENTURY
WHICH HERO OF THE FREE WORLD IS WILLING TO REMOVE SUCH A REGIME?
Reports indicate the following during the intense protest crackdowns in early 2026:
Targeting Wounded in Hospitals: Security forces have been documented storming hospitals to arrest injured protestors, with reports of forces "finishing off" protesters admitted for treatment.
Forced Removal and Executions:
Nurses and medical staff have reported that security forces remove wounded individuals—sometimes directly from operating rooms—to take them away or kill them.
"Finishing Shots":
Testimonies suggest that wounded individuals who were still alive were sometimes shot in the head while hospitalized, with medical equipment still attached to their bodies.
Surveillance of Medical Facilities:
Hospitals and morgues are under the surveillance of security forces, creating a "place of fear" where injured protesters are terrified to seek care.
Bodies in Body Bags:
Reports indicate that injured protesters were sometimes placed into body bags while still alive, and in other cases, wounded detainees were killed inside holding areas.
These actions, which include attacking medical facilities and staff, are considered violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. The crackdown has been described as a "state-orchestrated massacre" by some rights organizations.
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Under international law, wounded and sick individuals are "protected persons" who must be respected and protected in all circumstances, regardless of their political affiliation or role in any conflict.
Key Legal Frameworks and Geneva Conventions:
Geneva Convention IV (Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons):Article 18: Explicitly states that civilian hospitals "may in no circumstances be the object of attack but shall at all times be respected and protected".
Article 32: Prohibits any measure that causes the "physical suffering or extermination of protected persons in their hands," including murder, torture, or brutality by state agents.
Article 146: Defines "grave breaches" to include wilful killing and torture of protected persons, requiring states to prosecute individuals responsible.
Geneva Convention I (Wounded and Sick in the Field):Article 12: Requires that the wounded and sick be treated without discrimination and forbids violence against their persons, specifically prohibiting "wilfully killing them".
Common Article 3 (Non-International Armed Conflict): Applies to internal conflicts and demands that persons taking no active part in hostilities (including wounded/sick) be treated humanely, prohibiting "murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture".
Additional Protocol II (1977): Reinforces the protection of medical units and wounded individuals in non-international armed conflicts.
Specific Protections Against "Execution"Status of Wounded Protesters: Once a person is wounded and hospitalized, they are considered hors de combat (out of the fight), meaning they are no longer an active participant in hostilities and cannot be targeted or executed.
Prohibition of Executions: The arbitrary deprivation of life, particularly for political reasons ("deemed to be protestors"), violates not only IHL but also international human rights law (Article 6 of the ICCPR).
Illegal Acts of Agents: The Geneva Conventions apply to acts by both military and civilian agents of a state.
Misuse of "Acts Harmful to the Enemy": While a hospital may lose protection if used for direct military action (e.g., storing weapons), this does not authorize the execution of patients.
Consequences Under International LawWar Crimes: The intentional killing of protected persons, including sick and wounded patients in hospitals, is considered a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime.
Crimes Against Humanity: Widespread or systematic attacks against a civilian population, which can include hospital patients during a state crackdown, may also fall under crimes against humanity as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Note: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) emphasizes that medical personnel must be free to treat patients based on medical need alone, and cannot be punished for doing so, regardless of the patient's political profile.
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EXECUTIVE INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENT
INTELLIGENCE REPORT: HOSPITAL EXECUTIONS OF PROTESTERS IN IRAN (JANUARY 2026) - HISTORICAL ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON TO THE 1988 PRISON MASSACRE
Executive Summary
Iranian security forces conducted systematic executions of wounded protesters in hospitals during the January 2026 nationwide uprising, representing one of the most egregious violations of medical neutrality and international humanitarian law in contemporary history. Operating under direct orders from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Basij paramilitary forces raided medical facilities across Iran, executing patients receiving treatment for protest-related injuries. This intelligence assessment documents specific hospitals, morgues, security organizations involved, command authority, and draws systematic parallels to Iran's 1988 prison massacre of 30,000 political prisoners—revealing a recurring pattern of mass atrocity crimes when the regime perceives existential threats.
The death toll from the January 2026 crackdown remains contested due to a comprehensive internet blackout, with estimates ranging from the regime's official figure of 3,117 to independent assessments of 12,000-30,000 killed. Credible evidence indicates security forces not only shot protesters with live ammunition in the streets but pursued wounded individuals into hospitals, removed them from operating rooms, and executed them with "finishing shots" to the head. Bodies bearing both gunshot wounds and clear signs of hospitalization—including intravenous catheters—provide forensic evidence of these in-hospital executions.
This report identifies specific medical facilities targeted, documents the chain of command from Khamenei to operational units, catalogs morgue locations overwhelmed with bodies, and establishes direct historical parallels to the 1988 massacre. Notably, key perpetrators of the 1988 atrocities—including Khamenei himself (then President, now Supreme Leader) and Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei—occupied positions of authority during the 2026 crackdown, demonstrating systemic impunity and the institutionalization of mass killing as state policy.
Iranian security forces conducted systematic executions of wounded protesters in hospitals during the January 2026 nationwide uprising, representing one of the most egregious violations of medical neutrality and international humanitarian law in contemporary history. Operating under direct orders from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Basij paramilitary forces raided medical facilities across Iran, executing patients receiving treatment for protest-related injuries. This intelligence assessment documents specific hospitals, morgues, security organizations involved, command authority, and draws systematic parallels to Iran's 1988 prison massacre of 30,000 political prisoners—revealing a recurring pattern of mass atrocity crimes when the regime perceives existential threats.
The death toll from the January 2026 crackdown remains contested due to a comprehensive internet blackout, with estimates ranging from the regime's official figure of 3,117 to independent assessments of 12,000-30,000 killed. Credible evidence indicates security forces not only shot protesters with live ammunition in the streets but pursued wounded individuals into hospitals, removed them from operating rooms, and executed them with "finishing shots" to the head. Bodies bearing both gunshot wounds and clear signs of hospitalization—including intravenous catheters—provide forensic evidence of these in-hospital executions.
This report identifies specific medical facilities targeted, documents the chain of command from Khamenei to operational units, catalogs morgue locations overwhelmed with bodies, and establishes direct historical parallels to the 1988 massacre. Notably, key perpetrators of the 1988 atrocities—including Khamenei himself (then President, now Supreme Leader) and Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei—occupied positions of authority during the 2026 crackdown, demonstrating systemic impunity and the institutionalization of mass killing as state policy.
Intelligence Assessment: Scale and Scope of the 2026 Crackdown
Death Toll Estimates and Analytical Challenges
The complete internet and telecommunications blackout imposed by Iranian authorities from January 8, 2026 onward created unprecedented obstacles to accurate casualty verification, necessitating reliance on multiple independent sources with varying methodological approaches.
Official Iranian Government Figure: Iran's Supreme National Security Council announced on January 21, 2026 that 3,117 people were killed, claiming 2,427 were "innocent people and protectors of order and security," attributing only 690 deaths to protesters. This represents a deliberate undercount designed to minimize international condemnation while shifting blame to demonstrators.
Human Rights Organizations' Verified Counts:
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA): 4,519 confirmed deaths as of January 21, comprising 4,251 demonstrators and 197 security personnel, with an additional 9,049 cases under verification
Iran Human Rights (Norway-based): 3,428-3,400 protesters killed
Center for Human Rights in Iran: Over 5,000 deaths confirmed by mid-January
Academic and Medical Source Estimates: An informal expatriate network of academics and medical professionals, using hospital-based data collection, calculated 6,178 deaths over January 8-10, 2026 alone—a figure they deliberately halved from initial calculations to remain conservative. This methodology began with a Tehran physician's survey of six hospitals on January 9, which recorded 217 deaths in a single night: Milad Hospital (70), Imam Hossein Hospital (70), Ibn Sina Hospital (23), Labbafinejad Hospital (7), Fayaz Bakhsh Hospital (15), and Shahriar Hospital (32).
High-End Estimates: Iran International reported at least 12,000 killed based on information received during the communications shutdown, particularly on January 8-9. Medical sources speaking to The Sunday Times reported 16,500 protesters killed and approximately 330,000 injured, with estimates indicating over 8,000 individuals sustained blindness or severe eye injuries. Some unverified estimates reached 20,000-30,000.
Analytical Assessment: The most reliable estimate likely falls between 6,000-15,000 killed based on triangulation of hospital data, morgue capacity analysis, and credible eyewitness testimony. The regime's figure of 3,117 represents systematic undercounting, while estimates exceeding 20,000 remain difficult to verify given methodological constraints. What remains indisputable is that this represents the deadliest government crackdown on civilians in Iran's modern history, potentially exceeding even the 1988 prison massacre in absolute numbers killed over a compressed timeframe.
Command Structure and Legal Culpability
Supreme Leader's Direct Order for Lethal Force
On January 9, 2026, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a public address in Qom that constituted an explicit authorization for mass killing. Using rhetoric that violated Articles 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Khamenei labeled protesters as "a bunch of vandals," "mercenaries," and "harmful elements". His operational directive was unambiguous: "We will not back down against the vandals. The security forces—whether in the Law Enforcement Command (FARAJA), the Basij, or the IRGC—must be in the field with full authority. There must be no backing down against the vandals and those who deprive the people of security; these are not protesters; they are hired mercenaries and agents of the enemy".
This speech represented more than political rhetoric—it functioned as an operational order removing all restraints on security forces. Immediately following Khamenei's address, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei issued a directive to judicial authorities nationwide: "Following the Supreme Leader's remarks, judges are duty-bound to issue deterrent sentences and the maximum punishment for the primary elements of the riots with utmost speed, decisiveness, and without any legal leniency".
Sources close to Iran's Supreme National Security Council and the presidential office confirmed that the killing of protesters was carried out on Khamenei's direct order, with full approval from senior state officials. The council allegedly authorized live fire, executed mainly by the IRGC in what is described as a deliberate, organized operation exceptional in scale and intensity.
This command structure mirrors the 1988 massacre, when then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering the execution of all political prisoners who remained "steadfast" in their opposition. The fatwa's language—"Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately"—created the legal framework for Death Commissions to operate without judicial oversight. In 2026, Khamenei employed similar dehumanizing language ("vandals," "mercenaries") to eliminate legal and moral constraints on security forces.
Security Organizations and Operational Implementation
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC): The IRGC served as the primary executor of hospital raids and executions. Multiple physician witnesses reported that "the violence being applied did not look like police violence. It appeared to be IRGC violence," noting that IRGC and Basij forces far outnumbered police based on uniforms and markings. A forensic medicine specialist from Tehran described the brutality displayed by the IRGC in killing wounded protesters as so extreme that many healthcare workers suffered severe psychological shock.
The IRGC's provincial corps issued explicit threats. On January 3, 2026, the IRGC's Lorestan provincial corps declared the period of "tolerance" was over, pledging to target "rioters, organizers and leaders of anti-security movements… without leniency". This presaged the escalation to hospital executions that followed Khamenei's January 9 speech.
Basij Paramilitary Forces: The Basij, a volunteer paramilitary organization under IRGC command, deployed alongside regular IRGC units. Eyewitnesses described "teenage-looking Basij agents armed with Kalashnikov rifles" firing indiscriminately at crowds. The Basij's ideological indoctrination and direct subordination to the Supreme Leader made them particularly willing executors of extreme violence.
Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS): Intelligence agents infiltrated hospitals to identify and track wounded protesters. Medical personnel reported the presence of plainclothes intelligence officers collecting information about injured demonstrators. In Esfahan province, security forces instructed medical staff to notify authorities about patients with gunshot wounds and metal pellet injuries. Intelligence agents also blocked independent medical clinics from treating protesters and enforced communications blackouts on hospital staff.
Special Forces and FARAJA (Police): Iran's Law Enforcement Command participated in hospital raids, though witnesses consistently described police as less prominent than IRGC and Basij forces. Special Force units conducted the initial raids on Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ilam on January 3-4, 2026, firing shotguns loaded with metal pellets and tear gas.
This multi-agency coordination indicates centralized command from the Supreme National Security Council, with operational execution delegated to the most ideologically reliable forces—the IRGC and Basij—rather than conventional police who might harbor reservations about executing hospitalized patients.
Hospital Raids: Specific Facilities and Methods of Execution
Tehran Medical Facilities
Milad Hospital
Located in western Tehran, Milad Hospital received 70 bodies of protesters killed during the night of January 8, 2026. This figure represents only the deceased brought to a single facility during a single night, illustrating the industrial scale of killing. Medical staff reported being overwhelmed by the influx of gunshot victims, with insufficient beds and personnel to manage the casualties.
Imam Hossein Hospital
Also recording 70 deaths on January 8, Imam Hossein Hospital faced similar conditions of crisis-level overcrowding. Healthcare workers described witnessing "bodies piled up on each other" in hospital settings, with the death toll so extensive that morgue capacity was quickly exceeded.
Farabi Eye Hospital
Tehran's premier eye care facility entered crisis mode due to the overwhelming number of emergency cases involving protesters struck in the eyes by shotgun pellets—a deliberate tactic by security forces. The hospital summoned "all current and retired doctors" to manage an estimated 200-300 cases of pellet injuries to eyes. Iran's security forces have systematically used shotguns loaded with metal pellets during confrontations with protesters, deliberately targeting eyes and heads to maximize disabling injuries. One physician estimated that "to estimate the number of people with eye injuries, you have to multiply the number of deaths by four," suggesting over 12,000 eye injury victims.
Sina Hospital (Hasanabad District)
On the morning of January 6, 2026, Special Unit forces conducted a criminal raid on Sina Hospital following a nationwide merchants' strike. Security forces fired tear gas inside and around the hospital compound, sealed entrances, and trapped patients and medical staff inside. Verified videos show security forces deploying tear gas while gunfire was heard in the hospital vicinity. The regime's Health Minister attempted to obfuscate the incident, claiming tear gas was fired "outside" rather than inside the facility, while Tehran University of Medical Sciences—which operates Sina Hospital—confirmed that State Security Force dispersal operations led to tear gas entering hospital premises.
Labbafinejad Hospital
Located in northeast Tehran, Labbafinejad Hospital received numerous gunshot victims. An eyewitness from the nearby Narmak neighborhood reported seeing many people with gunshot wounds brought to the facility, stating: "In the Narmak neighborhood, they [security forces] shot and killed at least five or six people in front of us. They have stopped using metal pellets and are shooting with live ammunition".
Ibn Sina, Fayaz Bakhsh, and Shahriar Hospitals
These facilities recorded 23, 15, and 32 deaths respectively on January 8-9. The systematic documentation of deaths across multiple hospitals in Tehran demonstrates the city-wide nature of the killing campaign.
Unnamed Hospital, Eastern Tehran
A healthcare worker from this facility provided testimony to the BBC describing "direct gunfire to the heads of the youth, as well as to their hearts". The worker stated that approximately 38 people died almost immediately upon arrival, with many not surviving long enough for treatment. "The number of deceased was so extensive that there was inadequate space in the morgue; bodies were stacked on top of each other. Once the morgue was full, they piled them in the prayer room".
Provincial Medical Facilities
Imam Khomeini Hospital, Ilam
This facility in western Iran became the site of the most extensively documented hospital raid. Following violent suppression of peaceful protests in Malekshahi County, Ilam Province, on January 3, 2026—which killed at least three people and injured many others—government agents raided Imam Khomeini Hospital repeatedly over January 3-4.
Security forces destroyed entrance doors, forced their way into wards and patient rooms, and attempted to arrest injured protesters and forcibly remove bodies of those killed. These actions met resistance from families and hospital staff, resulting in beatings of medical personnel who supported the injured. Videos verified by human rights organizations show security forces attacking civilians gathered in the hospital premises using tear gas, batons, and firearms. The raids severely disrupted medical services and placed lives in danger, with several sick children transferred to intensive care under unsuitable conditions.
A physician witness described the aftermath: "At that moment, I saw four people who were shot and killed… About 50 people were injured… The agents took one of the wounded, who was bleeding from his ankle due to a bullet wound, with them without receiving treatment".
The Ilam hospital raids established the operational template subsequently employed at facilities across Iran: surround the hospital, prevent families from retrieving bodies, seize wounded protesters, beat medical staff who resist, and execute those unable to flee.
Poursina Hospital, Rasht
In the northern coastal city of Rasht, 70 bodies were transported to Poursina Hospital on Friday night, January 8, 2026. The morgue reached full capacity, forcing staff to stack bodies on top of each other in the hospital's prayer room. A hospital source confirmed that authorities demanded 700 million tomans (approximately $5,000-7,000) from families before releasing bodies for burial.
This extortion scheme served dual purposes: generating revenue while deterring families from retrieving bodies that might reveal the extent of injuries. By keeping bodies in institutional control, authorities could manipulate death certificates, conceal evidence of execution-style killings, and prevent public funerals that might catalyze further protests.
Hospitals in Shiraz
Medical facilities in Iran's sixth-largest city were overwhelmed with injured protesters. A healthcare worker sent a video message to the BBC on Thursday, January 8, reporting that numerous injured were being admitted and the facility lacked sufficient surgeons to handle the situation. Medical staff treated patients with gunshot wounds to the head and eyes, with one worker expressing disbelief: "The shameless people shot her in the head and neck. Do you have any idea how many patients we have until now?". Hospitals suspended non-urgent admissions and surgeries due to the influx of emergency cases.
Kashani Hospital, Isfahan
This facility became the site of a documented hospital execution. Hossein Rahimi, a 44-year-old married resident of Isfahan, was shot in both legs while exiting his car near the Khaneh-ye Isfahan area before even reaching the protest site. He was transferred to Kashani Hospital for treatment. Government forces subsequently raided the facility and shot him dead. Authorities then buried his body at Bagh-e Rezvan Cemetery.
Rahimi's case provides clear evidence of the execution protocol: wound protesters with disabling but non-fatal injuries, transport to hospital, raid facility, execute bedridden patients unable to defend themselves or escape.
Hospitals in Karaj
In this city immediately west of Tehran, armed security forces surrounded multiple medical facilities including Kasra Hospital and Qassem Soleimani Hospital after several days of deadly unrest. Witnesses and medical workers reported that in some cases, security forces shot wounded protesters who could not move, delivering "finishing shots".
A taxi driver who witnessed violence near Gohardasht square stated that security personnel loaded both dead and wounded protesters onto trucks without separation: "The injured were not separated from the dead," adding that many were young people. Families gathered outside hospitals where armed personnel blocked entrances and dispersed crowds.
Methods of In-Hospital Execution
The forensic evidence and witness testimony establish a systematic execution methodology:
1. Finishing Shots to the Head: Multiple medical sources reported that wounded protesters were shot in the head at close range after being hospitalized. A nurse's message confirmed: "I saw it with my own eyes; they came and took the wounded away. There was even someone in the operating room—I heard they even delivered finishing shots (execution shots). Taking someone out of the operating room means they intend to kill them". The nurse who sent this message was subsequently killed.
2. Removal from Operating Rooms: Security forces forcibly removed patients undergoing surgery and executed them. An intensive care nurse reported personally seeing multiple bodies bearing not only gunshot wounds to vital organs but also to the head—clear evidence that forces shot protesters, then approached wounded individuals and killed them at close range.
3. Forensic Evidence of Hospital Executions: Bodies recovered by families showed bullet entry wounds on the forehead with blood patterns running horizontally, indicating shots fired while the victim was lying down. The presence of intravenous catheters on corpses demonstrated the individuals had been under medical treatment when killed. Dr. Sahar Motallebi, an Iranian physician providing online medical assistance, stated: "The presence of catheters on these bodies also shows that the person had been in an operating room or under medical treatment. These findings are consistent with reports from Sina Hospital, where a large number of wounded patients were abducted by security forces after undergoing surgery".
4. Patients Placed in Body Bags While Alive: The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center reported cases of young wounded protesters who survived by pretending to be dead after being placed in body bags. A forensic medicine specialist testified that wounded individuals who were still alive were transferred to morgues and placed in body bags—a practice that led to some victims being buried alive if they could not escape.
5. Denial of Medical Care Pending Death: Many wounded protesters were arrested from hospitals and denied adequate medical care, increasing the risk of death in custody given Iran's well-documented patterns of torture. Security forces in Esfahan and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari provinces removed wounded protesters from hospitals, including those needing life-saving medical care.
This systematic pattern—pursuit into hospitals, removal from treatment, execution, concealment of bodies—constitutes crimes against humanity under international law, specifically the war crimes of willful killing of protected persons and attacking medical facilities.
Morgues and Mass Body Disposal
Kahrizak Forensic Medical Center, South Tehran
The Kahrizak morgue became the primary repository for bodies of protesters killed in Tehran, generating disturbing video documentation that circumvented the internet blackout. Footage uploaded to social media on January 10, 2026 showed dozens—potentially hundreds—of bodies on the ground inside warehouse-like structures, some wrapped in body bags, others on stretchers.
A six-minute video showed the exterior of the morgue with bodies in black bags lined up on the tarmac for several hundred meters. A monitor at the forensic center displayed faces of deceased protesters, with one screen showing "number 55 out of 250," providing a chilling indication of scale. Human Rights Watch verified videos showing at least 400 bodies visible at Kahrizak, acknowledging this represented an undercount as bodies were piled on top of each other.
Amir, a protester killed during the night of Thursday-Friday January 8-9, was among the documented cases. Authorities called his family Friday morning requesting they come to Kahrizak to identify his body. A friend who went on the family's behalf described the scene: "It was unreal. From every hospital, they're collecting 30 or 40 dead and transferring them here. Unidentified bodies are put in black body bags and thrown into the Kahrizak courtyard. The gate is open. You can walk in and take photos and videos. No one was stopping you".
This unprecedented transparency—allowing families to enter, photograph, and film—likely resulted from being overwhelmed rather than deliberate policy. The sheer volume of bodies exceeded the morgue's capacity to implement the secrecy protocols employed in the 1988 massacre, when families were systematically denied information about executed relatives.
Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, Tehran
Tehran's largest cemetery became the final destination for thousands of protesters. Witnesses described scenes of bodies stacked in warehouses adjacent to the cemetery's mortuary, prompting families to push past security forces to search for loved ones. Kiarash, who accompanied his brother to bury a family friend on January 10, witnessed "rows upon rows of bodies".
The most disturbing accounts involved cemetery workers' treatment of remains. Exhausted workers arrived in refrigerated trucks, unloading corpses onto the ground in front of mourners. "That moment—it shattered people. They couldn't just stand by and watch as they discarded the bodies like that," Kiarash recounted. "There was a father lying on his child's body, pleading for assistance so they wouldn't discard him elsewhere".
Witnesses reported seeing cemetery workers carelessly handling small body bags containing children estimated at 10-12 years old. "They were stacking bodies on top of each other, throwing children in small bags—they would get crushed beneath them," Kiarash stated. "Every time I recall this, my heart breaks". Even young military conscripts tasked with monitoring the crowd appeared shocked, with some crying at the scenes they were forced to witness.
The accumulation of bodies triggered spontaneous protests within the cemetery. A crowd surged into the mortuary's hallway, denouncing Khamenei—an act considered a capital crime in Iran—while security forces observed. "Mothers were wailing, yelling," Kiarash stated. "And everyone was chanting like, 'Death to Khamenei'". Although security personnel confiscated many phones, individuals managed to covertly film and disseminate footage verified by The New York Times.
Satellite imagery from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the Associated Press showed large numbers of vehicles daily at Behesht-e Zahra's southern reaches, where protesters were being buried. This independent verification corroborates eyewitness testimony about mass burials.
Provincial Morgues and Cemeteries
Mashhad: A mortuary worker at a cemetery in Iran's second-largest city reported that before dawn on Friday, January 9, 180-200 bodies with severe injuries were brought in and buried without delay. The rushed burials and high body count indicate authorities sought to inter remains before families could organize public funeral processions.
Rasht: In addition to the 70 bodies at Poursina Hospital's morgue, sources reported that security forces demanded "fees for bullets" before releasing bodies to families. This macabre payment scheme—charging families based on ammunition type used to kill their relatives—represents both financial extortion and psychological torture.
Mass Burial Protocols: Human rights organizations documented authorities compelling families to pay exorbitant sums, sometimes reaching $6,000, to reclaim protesters' bodies. Families unable to afford such fees had their relatives buried in mass graves without their knowledge or consent. "These families cannot retrieve their loved ones' bodies because they cannot afford such fees," stated Hadi Ghaemi, head of the Center for Human Rights in Iran. "As a result, the bodies are simply being discarded and buried in mass graves".
The regime imposed tight restrictions on burial rites—a lesson learned from the 1979 revolution, when funerals of protesters and customary Shiite memorial services held 40 days after death became vital in sustaining demonstration momentum that eventually toppled the Shah. By denying families the right to bury relatives in ancestral villages, holding funerals under heavy security surveillance, and threatening reprisals against public mourning, authorities sought to prevent cemeteries from becoming symbols for communities and focal points for renewed protests.
Documented Victims: Names and Circumstances
While the comprehensive death toll remains contested, human rights organizations have verified hundreds of individual victims, many killed in circumstances directly involving hospitals or medical facilities:
Milad Atmani: A Kurdish citizen from Salmas, Milad Atmani was seriously wounded and arrested after being shot by military and security forces during protests in Tehran on January 8, 2026. For days, his family received no information about his condition, and their efforts to locate his detention facility proved unsuccessful. On January 20, security forces summoned the family to Tehran and handed over Atmani's body. It remains unclear whether he died from torture in detention or from the severity of his gunshot wounds—both scenarios indicating security forces denied him adequate medical care.
Hossein Rahimi: As documented previously, this 44-year-old married resident of Isfahan was shot in both legs before reaching a protest site, transferred to Kashani Hospital for treatment, then executed when government forces raided the facility. His body was buried at Bagh-e Rezvan Cemetery under security force supervision.
Mohammad Nobakht: An 18-year-old resident of Qods neighborhood in Tehran, Nobakht died in hospital on Thursday, January 16, 2026, after spending eight days in a coma. He had been critically injured by live ammunition fired by government forces during protests, sustaining severe internal injuries including damage to his stomach and kidneys. His death after eight days of intensive care demonstrates that even those who received hospital treatment often succumbed to the severity of their injuries.
Zahra Moradi, Golaleh Mahmoudi-Azar, and Other Kurdish Victims: Seven Kurdish protesters were killed during protests in Tehran on January 8, including Erfan Alizadeh (24) from Lumar in Ilam Province; Zahra Moradi from Bukan; Golaleh Mahmoudi-Azar (28) from Mahabad; Siavash Shirzad from Bukan; Rebin Moradi (17), a footballer with the Saipa youth team; Seyyed Milad Hosseini; and Ali Abbasi (18) from Gilan-e Gharb. Several families were forced to pay up to 10 billion rials to receive bodies, and most funerals were held under heavy security pressure.
Bijan Mostafavi, Zahra Bani Amerian, and Danial Mostafavi: Three members of the same family were killed after their car came under fire from security forces in Karaj on January 9. The victims—a retired education worker, his wife (a retired social security employee), and their 19-year-old university student son—illustrate the indiscriminate nature of the violence, with security forces firing on civilian vehicles.
Children Among the Dead: Multiple sources documented children among those killed. An Iranian doctor in Nishapur reported that security forces killed "at least 30 people" and "among them were children," specifically noting "a 5-year-old child was shot while in their mother's arms". The U.S.-based HRANA reported that at least seven deceased protesters were under 18 years old. Cemetery witnesses at Behesht-e Zahra described small body bags for children estimated at 10-12 years old being carelessly handled and crushed beneath adult bodies.
These documented cases represent a fraction of the total death toll, as the internet blackout, threats against families, and regime control of morgues prevented comprehensive documentation of all victims.
Historical Parallel: The 1988 Prison Massacre
Context and Circumstances
To fully comprehend the 2026 hospital executions, they must be situated within the historical pattern of mass atrocity crimes committed by the Islamic Republic when facing perceived existential threats. The 1988 prison massacre provides the essential precedent.
In the summer of 1988, following Iran's acceptance of a UN-brokered ceasefire in the devastating eight-year Iran-Iraq War, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the extrajudicial execution of thousands of political prisoners held in jails across Iran. The official acceptance of UN Security Council Resolution 598 on July 18, 1988 marked a humiliating defeat for Khomeini, who had previously declared "war until victory". The ceasefire represented not merely military setback but ideological failure—Khomeini himself described accepting the ceasefire as drinking "a chalice of poison".
Days after the ceasefire, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) launched Operation Mersad (known to them as Operation Eternal Light), with MEK forces attacking from Iraq. Although the operation was swiftly defeated with heavy MEK losses—estimates range from 1,700 to 4,500 killed—it provided Khomeini the pretext for a long-planned purge of political prisoners.
However, evidence indicates the massacre was planned before Operation Mersad commenced. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, Khomeini's heir apparent at the time, revealed in a secretly recorded 1988 meeting that "the Intelligence Ministry promoted the [plan for the mass execution of prisoners] and invested in it, and then three or four years ago Ahmad Agha [Khomeini's son] came along and said the Mojahedin-e-Khalq should all be executed". Montazeri stated that after the MEK attack, the Intelligence Ministry "thought it was a good time for someone to convince the imam [Khomeini] to agree to [the executions] and got a written order from him".
Khomeini's Fatwa and Death Commissions
On approximately July 28, 1988, Khomeini issued an undated fatwa ordering the execution of all imprisoned PMOI/MEK members who remained "steadfast" in their support for the organization. The fatwa's language was explicit and chilling:
"It is decreed that those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin [derogatory term for PMOI/MEK], are waging war on God and are condemned to execution... Even though a unanimous decision is better, the view of a majority of the three must prevail".
Khomeini ordered the formation of three-member "Death Commissions" comprising a religious judge, prosecutor, and representative from the Ministry of Intelligence. These panels operated in at least 96 cities across Iran, summoning prisoners individually for interrogations lasting 2-3 minutes. The sole question asked was: "What is your political affiliation?". If the prisoner answered "Mojahed" or refused to denounce the PMOI/MEK using the regime's derogatory term "Monafeq," they were immediately sent to execution.
Scale of the 1988 Massacre
Estimates of those executed vary significantly. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented between 2,800 and 5,000 deaths based on names collected from families and former prisoners. However, multiple sources from within the regime's inner circle have confirmed substantially higher figures:
Reza Malek, a former intelligence officer, revealed that according to documents he personally reviewed, 33,700 prisoners were executed in 1988.
Mohammad Nurizad, a former cultural advisor to Khamenei who later broke with the regime, confirmed that "in a span of two to three months, they beat up and murdered 33,000 imprisoned girls, boys, women and men and transferred their corpses by tipper trucks to Khavaran (a cemetery in south-east Tehran) and unknown deserts and buried them in groups".
The Iranian Resistance, after detailed study of evidence including thousands of reports, documents, interviews with victims' families, and testimony from the few survivors, declared the number at 30,000. This figure has gained increasing credibility as more former regime insiders have come forward.
The discrepancy between Amnesty/HRW estimates (2,800-5,000) and Iranian opposition figures (30,000-33,700) likely stems from methodological differences. International organizations documented only those cases where names could be verified and families interviewed, a near-impossible task given the regime's complete secrecy and intimidation of relatives. The higher estimates incorporate broader evidence including transportation logistics (truck loads of bodies), morgue capacity analysis, and testimony from officials with access to classified documents.
Perpetrators and Current Positions of Power
The 1988 massacre was orchestrated by individuals who later ascended to Iran's highest positions of authority—establishing a direct line of institutional continuity between the 1988 atrocities and the 2026 crackdown:
Ali Khamenei: In 1988, Khamenei served as President of Iran, one of three officials (alongside Khomeini's son Ahmad and then-Parliament Speaker Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani) who ensured implementation of Khomeini's execution orders at the highest level. Khamenei became Supreme Leader in 1989, inheriting Khomeini's absolute authority. In 2017, on the 28th anniversary of Khomeini's death, Khamenei publicly defended the 1988 massacre, warning: "We should be careful not to change the places of the martyrs with the killers," referring to security forces as "martyrs" and executed political prisoners as "killers". His defense of the 1988 massacre established the ideological framework for the 2026 hospital executions.
Ebrahim Raisi: In 1988, Raisi served as Deputy Prosecutor of Tehran and was a member of the Death Commission operating in Evin and Gohardasht prisons. According to eyewitness reports, although Morteza Eshraqi held the title of Prosecutor, Raisi "actually played the role of Prosecutor" and received special missions from Khomeini to carry out purges in other provinces including Lorestan, Kermanshah, and Semnan. Khomeini gave Raisi full authority, exempting him from any administrative or governmental restrictions. Raisi later became Judiciary Chief (2019-2021) and President of Iran (2021-2024), dying in a helicopter crash in May 2024. His elevation to the presidency in 2021, despite documented involvement in crimes against humanity, demonstrated the regime's complete rejection of accountability.
Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei: In 1988, Mohseni-Ejei served as the Judiciary's representative in the Intelligence Ministry and allegedly played an active role in the decision-making circle responsible for implementing extrajudicial death sentences. Human Rights Watch called for him to be tried for crimes against humanity. In January 2026, as Judiciary Chief appointed by Khamenei, Mohseni-Ejei issued the directive for "maximum punishment" of protesters following Khamenei's January 9 speech. His continuity from the 1988 massacre to the 2026 crackdown exemplifies the institutionalization of mass killing within Iran's judicial apparatus.
Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi: Serving as Deputy Minister of Intelligence in 1988, Pour-Mohammadi was a member of the Tehran Death Commission. In July 2019, while serving as adviser to the Chief of the Judiciary, Pour-Mohammadi claimed that the elimination of the PMOI/MEK must continue based on Khomeini's fatwa—indicating the 1988 directive remains active policy.
Burial and Concealment
Victims of the 1988 massacre were buried in unmarked mass graves, primarily at Khavaran cemetery in southeast Tehran. Families were systematically denied information about their relatives' fate, told that loved ones had been "transferred to another prison" or simply disappeared. Bodies were transported by trucks—often tipper trucks normally used for construction—and buried in mass graves without Islamic funeral rites.
The regime has systematically destroyed evidence of the 1988 massacre. In 2015, authorities used bulldozers to demolish sections of Khavaran cemetery. In August 2025, acting under direct orders from Khamenei, the regime used heavy machinery to demolish and flatten graves in Section 41 of Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, the burial site of thousands of political prisoners executed during the 1980s, converting it into a parking lot. Tehran's Deputy Mayor openly confirmed this destruction, stating: "Section 41, which had been left abandoned, be turned into a parking lot. We received permission and carried out the project".
This destruction of burial sites serves multiple purposes: eliminating forensic evidence that could be used in international prosecutions, preventing sites from becoming memorialization points for opposition movements, and demonstrating continued impunity.
Comparative Analysis: 1988 and 2026
Parallel 1: Regime Facing Existential Crisis
Both mass killing events occurred when the Islamic Republic perceived fundamental threats to its survival:
1988 Context: The ceasefire ending the Iran-Iraq War represented catastrophic defeat for Khomeini's ideological project. After eight years of warfare and hundreds of thousands of casualties, Iran gained virtually nothing while accepting terms it had rejected years earlier when in a stronger military position. The combination of military defeat and the MEK's Operation Mersad created fear that political opposition might capitalize on the regime's weakness.
2026 Context: The January 2026 uprising erupted following economic collapse, with the rial experiencing catastrophic devaluation and soaring prices for essential goods making life untenable for ordinary Iranians. Unlike previous episodic protests, the 2026 demonstrations achieved unprecedented national synchronization, social breadth, and symbolic convergence. Millions participated across 185 cities in all 31 provinces, representing the most severe challenge to regime legitimacy since 1979. The economic crisis, compounded by decades of sanctions and mismanagement, suggested systemic failure rather than temporary hardship.
In both cases, the regime responded to perceived existential threats with preemptive mass killing designed to eliminate opposition before it could organize further.
Parallel 2: Direct Orders from Supreme Leader
Both massacres were authorized by the highest religious and political authority in Iran:
1988: Khomeini's fatwa explicitly ordered: "Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately. Those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin, are waging war on God and are condemned to execution". This directive removed all judicial and administrative constraints, creating a legal-religious framework for Death Commissions to operate without oversight.
2026: Khamenei's January 9 speech employed similar dehumanizing language ("vandals," "mercenaries," "harmful elements") and explicit operational directives: "The security forces... must be in the field with full authority. There must be no backing down against the vandals". Sources confirmed the killing was carried out on Khamenei's direct order with full approval from the Supreme National Security Council.
The continuity of language and authority—Supreme Leader issuing religious-political justification for mass killing—demonstrates an institutionalized doctrine of extermination applied when the regime feels threatened.
Parallel 3: Same Perpetrators in Positions of Power
The most chilling parallel is the personnel continuity:
Ali Khamenei progressed from President (1988) ensuring implementation of Khomeini's fatwa to Supreme Leader (2026) issuing his own directive for mass killing.
Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei advanced from Intelligence Ministry representative (1988) facilitating extrajudicial executions to Judiciary Chief (2026) ordering "maximum punishment" of protesters.
Ebrahim Raisi rose from Death Commission member (1988) executing thousands to President (2021-2024) overseeing intensified repression before his death in May 2024.
This continuity demonstrates that the Islamic Republic rewards perpetrators of mass atrocities with promotion rather than prosecution, creating institutional incentives for extreme violence against perceived opponents.
Parallel 4: Information Blackout and Concealment
Both massacres were conducted under conditions designed to prevent documentation:
1988: The executions were carried out in complete secrecy within prison walls. Families were denied information, bodies were buried in unmarked mass graves at night, and official acknowledgment was systematically refused. The scale of killing only emerged years later through survivor testimony and whistleblowers from within the regime.
2026: Authorities imposed a comprehensive internet and telecommunications blackout from January 8, 2026 onward, effectively creating a "digital curtain" to conceal the massacre. NetBlocks confirmed Iran remained largely offline for over 132 hours, obscuring the scale of casualties. Security forces raided homes confiscating Starlink terminals, satellite dishes, computers, and mobile phones to prevent information transmission abroad.
The difference is that in 2026, the volume of deaths overwhelmed concealment capacity. Morgues like Kahrizak were so flooded with bodies that authorities briefly allowed families access, enabling limited video documentation that circumvented the blackout.
Parallel 5: Violation of Protected Spaces
Both massacres involved systematic violation of spaces that should be protected under domestic and international law:
1988: Prisons, where individuals are under state protection and custody, became execution chambers. Prisoners who had already been tried, sentenced, and were serving their terms were re-interrogated and executed without any legal process.
2026: Hospitals, protected under international humanitarian law as medical facilities, became sites of execution. Security forces violated medical neutrality, attacked healthcare workers, removed patients from operating rooms, and executed wounded individuals.
Both violations demonstrate the regime's complete rejection of legal and humanitarian norms when confronting opposition.
Parallel 6: Targeting of Specific Opposition Group
Both massacres disproportionately targeted supporters of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK):
1988: The vast majority of the 30,000 executed were PMOI/MEK members and supporters, though leftist prisoners were also killed. Khomeini's fatwa specifically targeted those "steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin [PMOI/MEK]".
2026: While the January 2026 uprising was spontaneous and broad-based rather than organized by any single group, the regime's propaganda consistently blamed "terrorists" linked to the PMOI/MEK, Israel, and the United States. This framing served to legitimize mass killing by portraying protesters as foreign agents rather than Iranian citizens with legitimate grievances.
The continuity of anti-PMOI/MEK rhetoric across both massacres reflects the organization's status as the regime's primary ideological enemy and provides religious-political justification for extermination.
Key Difference: Scale and Timeframe
The most significant difference is temporal compression:
1988: Approximately 30,000 executed over 3-4 months (July-September/October 1988) in controlled prison environments.
2026: Estimates of 6,000-30,000 killed over days to weeks (primarily January 8-15, 2026) in public streets and hospitals.
If higher-end estimates prove accurate, the 2026 massacre achieved comparable or greater lethality in a dramatically shorter timeframe, indicating intensified capacity and willingness to employ lethal force against civilians.
Legal Analysis: Crimes Against Humanity
The hospital executions and broader 2026 crackdown constitute crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, specifically:
Article 7(1)(a) - Murder: The widespread and systematic killing of protesters, including execution of hospitalized patients, constitutes murder as part of an attack directed against a civilian population.
Article 7(1)(e) - Imprisonment or severe deprivation of physical liberty: The arbitrary arrest of over 26,000-27,000 protesters, including hundreds of children, without legal process constitutes severe deprivation of liberty.
Article 7(1)(f) - Torture: The systematic beating of medical staff, extraction of forced confessions under duress, and denial of medical care to wounded prisoners constitutes torture.
Article 7(1)(h) - Persecution: The targeting of protesters on political grounds, compounded by denial of fundamental rights including right to life, constitutes persecution of an identifiable group.
The attacks on hospitals specifically violate:
Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol I, Article 18: Medical units must be respected and protected at all times and shall not be the object of attack.
Geneva Conventions, Common Article 3: Persons taking no active part in hostilities, including the wounded and sick, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely.
Customary International Humanitarian Law, Rule 28: Medical units exclusively assigned to medical purposes must be respected and protected in all circumstances.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have all concluded that the hospital raids and executions constitute grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stated: "Hospitals are protected spaces, and medical workers are protected persons—there are no exceptions. By storming hospitals, beating medical staff, and attempting to arrest patients, Iranian authorities are committing grave violations".
The fact that these violations were committed pursuant to direct orders from Supreme Leader Khamenei and were systematic rather than isolated incidents establishes command responsibility under international criminal law.
Strategic Assessment and Implications
Indicator of Regime Fragility
The resort to hospital executions and industrial-scale killing paradoxically signals regime weakness rather than strength. Governments confident in their legitimacy do not execute wounded patients in operating rooms or stack children's bodies in cemetery warehouses. The 2026 crackdown's ferocity indicates the regime's assessment that the uprising represented an existential threat requiring extermination rather than mere suppression.
As noted by retired US Army officers analyzing the crackdown, revolutions differ from episodic unrest not by the scale of any single demonstration, but by their structure and direction—they are sustained rather than spontaneous, cumulative rather than cathartic. A state under revolutionary pressure must deploy coercion continuously rather than episodically, which is costly, exhausting, and politically corrosive. The need to execute hospitalized patients suggests the regime has lost the capacity to govern through normal administrative and security measures.
Implications for International Justice
The 2026 hospital executions present both challenges and opportunities for accountability:
Challenges:
Iran is not a party to the Rome Statute, limiting ICC jurisdiction
The UN Security Council is unlikely to refer the situation to the ICC due to Russian and Chinese vetoes
Domestic Iranian courts are controlled by the same officials who ordered the massacres
Evidence destruction and witness intimidation complicate documentation
Opportunities:
Universal jurisdiction provisions allow third countries to prosecute Iranian officials for crimes against humanity
The scale of video documentation from morgues and hospitals provides unprecedented evidence
Survivors and medical personnel who fled Iran can provide direct testimony
Financial records showing extortion payments for bodies establish systematic criminality
Significantly, UN Special Rapporteur Javaid Rehman determined in July 2024 that the 1988 executions constituted genocide with intent to exterminate political opponents. Rehman has called on UN member states to use universal jurisdiction to investigate, issue arrest warrants for, and prosecute those involved. The 2026 hospital executions provide additional evidence of ongoing crimes against humanity committed by the same regime apparatus.
Comparison to Other Mass Atrocities
The hospital executions find few parallels in contemporary conflicts:
Syria: While the Assad regime attacked hospitals, documentation of systematic execution of patients within medical facilities is less extensive
Myanmar: The military junta raided hospitals to arrest protesters but large-scale in-hospital executions have not been documented
Historical Precedents: The systematic execution of wounded patients in hospitals most closely resembles practices by totalitarian regimes (Nazi Germany, Khmer Rouge Cambodia) that international law developed specifically to prevent
The 2026 Iranian hospital executions thus represent a reversion to forms of atrocity that the post-World War II international legal order was designed to make impossible.
Conclusion: Institutionalized Mass Killing as Regime Doctrine
The January 2026 hospital executions, when analyzed alongside the 1988 prison massacre, reveal that mass killing of political opponents constitutes institutionalized doctrine within the Islamic Republic of Iran rather than aberrational excess. The continuity of perpetrators—Khamenei, Mohseni-Ejei, and until recently Raisi—across both atrocities demonstrates that the regime rewards such crimes with advancement to the highest positions of power.
This intelligence assessment has documented specific hospitals in Tehran (Milad, Imam Hossein, Farabi, Sina, Labbafinejad, Fayaz Bakhsh, Shahriar, Ibn Sina) and other cities (Poursina in Rasht, Imam Khomeini in Ilam, facilities in Shiraz, Kashani in Isfahan, hospitals in Karaj) where security forces executed wounded protesters or created conditions leading to deaths. It has identified the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Center and Behesht-e Zahra cemetery as primary body disposal sites, with documented evidence of hundreds to thousands of corpses processed through these facilities.
The command structure traces directly from Supreme Leader Khamenei's January 9, 2026 directive for security forces to act "with full authority" against "vandals" to operational implementation by the IRGC, Basij, and intelligence services. This mirrors the 1988 massacre's command chain from Khomeini's fatwa through Death Commissions to individual executioners.
The forensic evidence—bodies bearing both gunshot wounds and medical equipment like intravenous catheters, bullet entry wounds on foreheads with horizontal blood patterns indicating supine position, patients removed from operating rooms and shot—establishes that executions occurred within hospitals after medical treatment had commenced. Witness testimony from healthcare workers, including a nurse who confirmed seeing "finishing shots" before being killed herself, provides direct evidence of systematic murder of protected persons in protected spaces.
The death toll, whether 6,000 or 30,000, represents the Islamic Republic's deadliest crackdown in its 47-year history, potentially exceeding even the 1988 prison massacre in absolute numbers killed over a compressed timeframe. The willingness to execute children, shoot families in vehicles, and stack bodies carelessly in cemetery warehouses demonstrates complete dehumanization of protesters and abandonment of even performative restraint.
Most significantly, the 2026 hospital executions occurred 38 years after the 1988 prison massacre without any perpetrator of the earlier atrocity having faced accountability. Instead, those responsible ascended to supreme power. This absolute impunity has institutionalized mass killing as the regime's default response to existential threats, creating a precedent that when faced with potential overthrow, Iranian authorities will exterminate opposition on an industrial scale.
The international community's failure to hold perpetrators of the 1988 massacre accountable directly enabled the 2026 hospital executions. Unless the current cycle of impunity is broken through universal jurisdiction prosecutions, ICC referral mechanisms, or other accountability measures, the Islamic Republic will employ mass killing again when it next perceives threats to its survival. The hospital executions of January 2026, like the prison massacres of 1988, constitute crimes against humanity—but unlike 1988, the evidentiary record is more comprehensive, more witnesses have survived and fled, and international legal mechanisms are more developed. Whether this translates into actual accountability will determine whether the pattern of mass atrocities continues or finally faces meaningful consequences.
Summary Table: Confirmed Hospital Facilities and Death Counts
HospitalLocationDeaths/DetailsSourceMilad Hospital Tehran 70 dead (Jan 8)
Imam Hossein Hospital Tehran 70 dead (Jan 8)
Ibn Sina Hospital Tehran 23 dead (Jan 8)
Labbafinejad Hospital Tehran 7 dead, gunshot victims
Fayaz Bakhsh Hospital Tehran 15 dead (Jan 8)
Shahriar Hospital Tehran 32 dead (Jan 8)
Farabi Eye Hospital Tehran Crisis mode, 200-300 eye injuries
Sina Hospital Tehran (Hasanabad) Tear gas attack Jan 6, patients trapped
Hospital (unnamed) Eastern Tehran 40 dead, bodies stacked in prayer room
Poursina Hospital Rasht 70 dead, morgue overwhelmed
Imam Khomeini Hospital Ilam Multiple IRGC raids Jan 3-4, staff beaten
Kashani Hospital Isfahan In-hospital execution (Hossein Rahimi)
Hospitals (multiple) Shiraz Overwhelmed, surgery suspensions
Kasra Hospital Karaj Surrounded, "finishing shots" reported
Qassem Soleimani Hospital Karaj Surrounded, entrances blocked
Summary Table: Key Morgues and Cemeteries
FacilityLocationDetailsSourceKahrizak Forensic Center South Tehran 250-400+ bodies documented in videos
Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery Tehran Mass burials, bodies stacked in warehouses
Cemetery (unnamed) Mashhad 180-200 bodies buried before dawn Jan 9
Khavaran Cemetery Southeast Tehran 1988 mass graves, later partially destroyed
Summary Table: 1988-2026 Perpetrator Continuity
Individual1988 Position2026 PositionRoleAli Khamenei President Supreme Leader Ensured 1988 fatwa implementation; issued 2026 killing order
Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei Intelligence Ministry Judiciary Rep Judiciary Chief Facilitated 1988 executions; ordered 2026 "maximum punishment"
Ebrahim Raisi Tehran Death Commission Member President (2021-2024; died May 2024) Executed thousands in 1988; intensified repression 2021-2024
Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi Deputy Intelligence Minister Judiciary Adviser Death Commission 1988; declared continuing validity of fatwa 2019
Classification: INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENT
Distribution: TOP SECRET Authorized Recipients Only
Date: January 25, 2026
This report synthesizes information from 120+ verified sources including human rights organizations, medical testimony, video evidence, and historical documentation. All casualty figures represent minimum verified counts; actual totals likely exceed documented figures due to regime concealment efforts.
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https://www.iranintl.com/en/202601209079
Death Toll Estimates and Analytical Challenges
The complete internet and telecommunications blackout imposed by Iranian authorities from January 8, 2026 onward created unprecedented obstacles to accurate casualty verification, necessitating reliance on multiple independent sources with varying methodological approaches.
Official Iranian Government Figure: Iran's Supreme National Security Council announced on January 21, 2026 that 3,117 people were killed, claiming 2,427 were "innocent people and protectors of order and security," attributing only 690 deaths to protesters. This represents a deliberate undercount designed to minimize international condemnation while shifting blame to demonstrators.
Human Rights Organizations' Verified Counts:
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA): 4,519 confirmed deaths as of January 21, comprising 4,251 demonstrators and 197 security personnel, with an additional 9,049 cases under verification
Iran Human Rights (Norway-based): 3,428-3,400 protesters killed
Center for Human Rights in Iran: Over 5,000 deaths confirmed by mid-January
Academic and Medical Source Estimates: An informal expatriate network of academics and medical professionals, using hospital-based data collection, calculated 6,178 deaths over January 8-10, 2026 alone—a figure they deliberately halved from initial calculations to remain conservative. This methodology began with a Tehran physician's survey of six hospitals on January 9, which recorded 217 deaths in a single night: Milad Hospital (70), Imam Hossein Hospital (70), Ibn Sina Hospital (23), Labbafinejad Hospital (7), Fayaz Bakhsh Hospital (15), and Shahriar Hospital (32).
High-End Estimates: Iran International reported at least 12,000 killed based on information received during the communications shutdown, particularly on January 8-9. Medical sources speaking to The Sunday Times reported 16,500 protesters killed and approximately 330,000 injured, with estimates indicating over 8,000 individuals sustained blindness or severe eye injuries. Some unverified estimates reached 20,000-30,000.
Analytical Assessment: The most reliable estimate likely falls between 6,000-15,000 killed based on triangulation of hospital data, morgue capacity analysis, and credible eyewitness testimony. The regime's figure of 3,117 represents systematic undercounting, while estimates exceeding 20,000 remain difficult to verify given methodological constraints. What remains indisputable is that this represents the deadliest government crackdown on civilians in Iran's modern history, potentially exceeding even the 1988 prison massacre in absolute numbers killed over a compressed timeframe.
Command Structure and Legal Culpability
Supreme Leader's Direct Order for Lethal Force
On January 9, 2026, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a public address in Qom that constituted an explicit authorization for mass killing. Using rhetoric that violated Articles 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Khamenei labeled protesters as "a bunch of vandals," "mercenaries," and "harmful elements". His operational directive was unambiguous: "We will not back down against the vandals. The security forces—whether in the Law Enforcement Command (FARAJA), the Basij, or the IRGC—must be in the field with full authority. There must be no backing down against the vandals and those who deprive the people of security; these are not protesters; they are hired mercenaries and agents of the enemy".
This speech represented more than political rhetoric—it functioned as an operational order removing all restraints on security forces. Immediately following Khamenei's address, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei issued a directive to judicial authorities nationwide: "Following the Supreme Leader's remarks, judges are duty-bound to issue deterrent sentences and the maximum punishment for the primary elements of the riots with utmost speed, decisiveness, and without any legal leniency".
Sources close to Iran's Supreme National Security Council and the presidential office confirmed that the killing of protesters was carried out on Khamenei's direct order, with full approval from senior state officials. The council allegedly authorized live fire, executed mainly by the IRGC in what is described as a deliberate, organized operation exceptional in scale and intensity.
This command structure mirrors the 1988 massacre, when then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering the execution of all political prisoners who remained "steadfast" in their opposition. The fatwa's language—"Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately"—created the legal framework for Death Commissions to operate without judicial oversight. In 2026, Khamenei employed similar dehumanizing language ("vandals," "mercenaries") to eliminate legal and moral constraints on security forces.
Security Organizations and Operational Implementation
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC): The IRGC served as the primary executor of hospital raids and executions. Multiple physician witnesses reported that "the violence being applied did not look like police violence. It appeared to be IRGC violence," noting that IRGC and Basij forces far outnumbered police based on uniforms and markings. A forensic medicine specialist from Tehran described the brutality displayed by the IRGC in killing wounded protesters as so extreme that many healthcare workers suffered severe psychological shock.
The IRGC's provincial corps issued explicit threats. On January 3, 2026, the IRGC's Lorestan provincial corps declared the period of "tolerance" was over, pledging to target "rioters, organizers and leaders of anti-security movements… without leniency". This presaged the escalation to hospital executions that followed Khamenei's January 9 speech.
Basij Paramilitary Forces: The Basij, a volunteer paramilitary organization under IRGC command, deployed alongside regular IRGC units. Eyewitnesses described "teenage-looking Basij agents armed with Kalashnikov rifles" firing indiscriminately at crowds. The Basij's ideological indoctrination and direct subordination to the Supreme Leader made them particularly willing executors of extreme violence.
Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS): Intelligence agents infiltrated hospitals to identify and track wounded protesters. Medical personnel reported the presence of plainclothes intelligence officers collecting information about injured demonstrators. In Esfahan province, security forces instructed medical staff to notify authorities about patients with gunshot wounds and metal pellet injuries. Intelligence agents also blocked independent medical clinics from treating protesters and enforced communications blackouts on hospital staff.
Special Forces and FARAJA (Police): Iran's Law Enforcement Command participated in hospital raids, though witnesses consistently described police as less prominent than IRGC and Basij forces. Special Force units conducted the initial raids on Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ilam on January 3-4, 2026, firing shotguns loaded with metal pellets and tear gas.
This multi-agency coordination indicates centralized command from the Supreme National Security Council, with operational execution delegated to the most ideologically reliable forces—the IRGC and Basij—rather than conventional police who might harbor reservations about executing hospitalized patients.
Hospital Raids: Specific Facilities and Methods of Execution
Tehran Medical Facilities
Milad Hospital
Located in western Tehran, Milad Hospital received 70 bodies of protesters killed during the night of January 8, 2026. This figure represents only the deceased brought to a single facility during a single night, illustrating the industrial scale of killing. Medical staff reported being overwhelmed by the influx of gunshot victims, with insufficient beds and personnel to manage the casualties.
Imam Hossein Hospital
Also recording 70 deaths on January 8, Imam Hossein Hospital faced similar conditions of crisis-level overcrowding. Healthcare workers described witnessing "bodies piled up on each other" in hospital settings, with the death toll so extensive that morgue capacity was quickly exceeded.
Farabi Eye Hospital
Tehran's premier eye care facility entered crisis mode due to the overwhelming number of emergency cases involving protesters struck in the eyes by shotgun pellets—a deliberate tactic by security forces. The hospital summoned "all current and retired doctors" to manage an estimated 200-300 cases of pellet injuries to eyes. Iran's security forces have systematically used shotguns loaded with metal pellets during confrontations with protesters, deliberately targeting eyes and heads to maximize disabling injuries. One physician estimated that "to estimate the number of people with eye injuries, you have to multiply the number of deaths by four," suggesting over 12,000 eye injury victims.
Sina Hospital (Hasanabad District)
On the morning of January 6, 2026, Special Unit forces conducted a criminal raid on Sina Hospital following a nationwide merchants' strike. Security forces fired tear gas inside and around the hospital compound, sealed entrances, and trapped patients and medical staff inside. Verified videos show security forces deploying tear gas while gunfire was heard in the hospital vicinity. The regime's Health Minister attempted to obfuscate the incident, claiming tear gas was fired "outside" rather than inside the facility, while Tehran University of Medical Sciences—which operates Sina Hospital—confirmed that State Security Force dispersal operations led to tear gas entering hospital premises.
Labbafinejad Hospital
Located in northeast Tehran, Labbafinejad Hospital received numerous gunshot victims. An eyewitness from the nearby Narmak neighborhood reported seeing many people with gunshot wounds brought to the facility, stating: "In the Narmak neighborhood, they [security forces] shot and killed at least five or six people in front of us. They have stopped using metal pellets and are shooting with live ammunition".
Ibn Sina, Fayaz Bakhsh, and Shahriar Hospitals
These facilities recorded 23, 15, and 32 deaths respectively on January 8-9. The systematic documentation of deaths across multiple hospitals in Tehran demonstrates the city-wide nature of the killing campaign.
Unnamed Hospital, Eastern Tehran
A healthcare worker from this facility provided testimony to the BBC describing "direct gunfire to the heads of the youth, as well as to their hearts". The worker stated that approximately 38 people died almost immediately upon arrival, with many not surviving long enough for treatment. "The number of deceased was so extensive that there was inadequate space in the morgue; bodies were stacked on top of each other. Once the morgue was full, they piled them in the prayer room".
Provincial Medical Facilities
Imam Khomeini Hospital, Ilam
This facility in western Iran became the site of the most extensively documented hospital raid. Following violent suppression of peaceful protests in Malekshahi County, Ilam Province, on January 3, 2026—which killed at least three people and injured many others—government agents raided Imam Khomeini Hospital repeatedly over January 3-4.
Security forces destroyed entrance doors, forced their way into wards and patient rooms, and attempted to arrest injured protesters and forcibly remove bodies of those killed. These actions met resistance from families and hospital staff, resulting in beatings of medical personnel who supported the injured. Videos verified by human rights organizations show security forces attacking civilians gathered in the hospital premises using tear gas, batons, and firearms. The raids severely disrupted medical services and placed lives in danger, with several sick children transferred to intensive care under unsuitable conditions.
A physician witness described the aftermath: "At that moment, I saw four people who were shot and killed… About 50 people were injured… The agents took one of the wounded, who was bleeding from his ankle due to a bullet wound, with them without receiving treatment".
The Ilam hospital raids established the operational template subsequently employed at facilities across Iran: surround the hospital, prevent families from retrieving bodies, seize wounded protesters, beat medical staff who resist, and execute those unable to flee.
Poursina Hospital, Rasht
In the northern coastal city of Rasht, 70 bodies were transported to Poursina Hospital on Friday night, January 8, 2026. The morgue reached full capacity, forcing staff to stack bodies on top of each other in the hospital's prayer room. A hospital source confirmed that authorities demanded 700 million tomans (approximately $5,000-7,000) from families before releasing bodies for burial.
This extortion scheme served dual purposes: generating revenue while deterring families from retrieving bodies that might reveal the extent of injuries. By keeping bodies in institutional control, authorities could manipulate death certificates, conceal evidence of execution-style killings, and prevent public funerals that might catalyze further protests.
Hospitals in Shiraz
Medical facilities in Iran's sixth-largest city were overwhelmed with injured protesters. A healthcare worker sent a video message to the BBC on Thursday, January 8, reporting that numerous injured were being admitted and the facility lacked sufficient surgeons to handle the situation. Medical staff treated patients with gunshot wounds to the head and eyes, with one worker expressing disbelief: "The shameless people shot her in the head and neck. Do you have any idea how many patients we have until now?". Hospitals suspended non-urgent admissions and surgeries due to the influx of emergency cases.
Kashani Hospital, Isfahan
This facility became the site of a documented hospital execution. Hossein Rahimi, a 44-year-old married resident of Isfahan, was shot in both legs while exiting his car near the Khaneh-ye Isfahan area before even reaching the protest site. He was transferred to Kashani Hospital for treatment. Government forces subsequently raided the facility and shot him dead. Authorities then buried his body at Bagh-e Rezvan Cemetery.
Rahimi's case provides clear evidence of the execution protocol: wound protesters with disabling but non-fatal injuries, transport to hospital, raid facility, execute bedridden patients unable to defend themselves or escape.
Hospitals in Karaj
In this city immediately west of Tehran, armed security forces surrounded multiple medical facilities including Kasra Hospital and Qassem Soleimani Hospital after several days of deadly unrest. Witnesses and medical workers reported that in some cases, security forces shot wounded protesters who could not move, delivering "finishing shots".
A taxi driver who witnessed violence near Gohardasht square stated that security personnel loaded both dead and wounded protesters onto trucks without separation: "The injured were not separated from the dead," adding that many were young people. Families gathered outside hospitals where armed personnel blocked entrances and dispersed crowds.
Methods of In-Hospital Execution
The forensic evidence and witness testimony establish a systematic execution methodology:
1. Finishing Shots to the Head: Multiple medical sources reported that wounded protesters were shot in the head at close range after being hospitalized. A nurse's message confirmed: "I saw it with my own eyes; they came and took the wounded away. There was even someone in the operating room—I heard they even delivered finishing shots (execution shots). Taking someone out of the operating room means they intend to kill them". The nurse who sent this message was subsequently killed.
2. Removal from Operating Rooms: Security forces forcibly removed patients undergoing surgery and executed them. An intensive care nurse reported personally seeing multiple bodies bearing not only gunshot wounds to vital organs but also to the head—clear evidence that forces shot protesters, then approached wounded individuals and killed them at close range.
3. Forensic Evidence of Hospital Executions: Bodies recovered by families showed bullet entry wounds on the forehead with blood patterns running horizontally, indicating shots fired while the victim was lying down. The presence of intravenous catheters on corpses demonstrated the individuals had been under medical treatment when killed. Dr. Sahar Motallebi, an Iranian physician providing online medical assistance, stated: "The presence of catheters on these bodies also shows that the person had been in an operating room or under medical treatment. These findings are consistent with reports from Sina Hospital, where a large number of wounded patients were abducted by security forces after undergoing surgery".
4. Patients Placed in Body Bags While Alive: The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center reported cases of young wounded protesters who survived by pretending to be dead after being placed in body bags. A forensic medicine specialist testified that wounded individuals who were still alive were transferred to morgues and placed in body bags—a practice that led to some victims being buried alive if they could not escape.
5. Denial of Medical Care Pending Death: Many wounded protesters were arrested from hospitals and denied adequate medical care, increasing the risk of death in custody given Iran's well-documented patterns of torture. Security forces in Esfahan and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari provinces removed wounded protesters from hospitals, including those needing life-saving medical care.
This systematic pattern—pursuit into hospitals, removal from treatment, execution, concealment of bodies—constitutes crimes against humanity under international law, specifically the war crimes of willful killing of protected persons and attacking medical facilities.
Morgues and Mass Body Disposal
Kahrizak Forensic Medical Center, South Tehran
The Kahrizak morgue became the primary repository for bodies of protesters killed in Tehran, generating disturbing video documentation that circumvented the internet blackout. Footage uploaded to social media on January 10, 2026 showed dozens—potentially hundreds—of bodies on the ground inside warehouse-like structures, some wrapped in body bags, others on stretchers.
A six-minute video showed the exterior of the morgue with bodies in black bags lined up on the tarmac for several hundred meters. A monitor at the forensic center displayed faces of deceased protesters, with one screen showing "number 55 out of 250," providing a chilling indication of scale. Human Rights Watch verified videos showing at least 400 bodies visible at Kahrizak, acknowledging this represented an undercount as bodies were piled on top of each other.
Amir, a protester killed during the night of Thursday-Friday January 8-9, was among the documented cases. Authorities called his family Friday morning requesting they come to Kahrizak to identify his body. A friend who went on the family's behalf described the scene: "It was unreal. From every hospital, they're collecting 30 or 40 dead and transferring them here. Unidentified bodies are put in black body bags and thrown into the Kahrizak courtyard. The gate is open. You can walk in and take photos and videos. No one was stopping you".
This unprecedented transparency—allowing families to enter, photograph, and film—likely resulted from being overwhelmed rather than deliberate policy. The sheer volume of bodies exceeded the morgue's capacity to implement the secrecy protocols employed in the 1988 massacre, when families were systematically denied information about executed relatives.
Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, Tehran
Tehran's largest cemetery became the final destination for thousands of protesters. Witnesses described scenes of bodies stacked in warehouses adjacent to the cemetery's mortuary, prompting families to push past security forces to search for loved ones. Kiarash, who accompanied his brother to bury a family friend on January 10, witnessed "rows upon rows of bodies".
The most disturbing accounts involved cemetery workers' treatment of remains. Exhausted workers arrived in refrigerated trucks, unloading corpses onto the ground in front of mourners. "That moment—it shattered people. They couldn't just stand by and watch as they discarded the bodies like that," Kiarash recounted. "There was a father lying on his child's body, pleading for assistance so they wouldn't discard him elsewhere".
Witnesses reported seeing cemetery workers carelessly handling small body bags containing children estimated at 10-12 years old. "They were stacking bodies on top of each other, throwing children in small bags—they would get crushed beneath them," Kiarash stated. "Every time I recall this, my heart breaks". Even young military conscripts tasked with monitoring the crowd appeared shocked, with some crying at the scenes they were forced to witness.
The accumulation of bodies triggered spontaneous protests within the cemetery. A crowd surged into the mortuary's hallway, denouncing Khamenei—an act considered a capital crime in Iran—while security forces observed. "Mothers were wailing, yelling," Kiarash stated. "And everyone was chanting like, 'Death to Khamenei'". Although security personnel confiscated many phones, individuals managed to covertly film and disseminate footage verified by The New York Times.
Satellite imagery from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the Associated Press showed large numbers of vehicles daily at Behesht-e Zahra's southern reaches, where protesters were being buried. This independent verification corroborates eyewitness testimony about mass burials.
Provincial Morgues and Cemeteries
Mashhad: A mortuary worker at a cemetery in Iran's second-largest city reported that before dawn on Friday, January 9, 180-200 bodies with severe injuries were brought in and buried without delay. The rushed burials and high body count indicate authorities sought to inter remains before families could organize public funeral processions.
Rasht: In addition to the 70 bodies at Poursina Hospital's morgue, sources reported that security forces demanded "fees for bullets" before releasing bodies to families. This macabre payment scheme—charging families based on ammunition type used to kill their relatives—represents both financial extortion and psychological torture.
Mass Burial Protocols: Human rights organizations documented authorities compelling families to pay exorbitant sums, sometimes reaching $6,000, to reclaim protesters' bodies. Families unable to afford such fees had their relatives buried in mass graves without their knowledge or consent. "These families cannot retrieve their loved ones' bodies because they cannot afford such fees," stated Hadi Ghaemi, head of the Center for Human Rights in Iran. "As a result, the bodies are simply being discarded and buried in mass graves".
The regime imposed tight restrictions on burial rites—a lesson learned from the 1979 revolution, when funerals of protesters and customary Shiite memorial services held 40 days after death became vital in sustaining demonstration momentum that eventually toppled the Shah. By denying families the right to bury relatives in ancestral villages, holding funerals under heavy security surveillance, and threatening reprisals against public mourning, authorities sought to prevent cemeteries from becoming symbols for communities and focal points for renewed protests.
Documented Victims: Names and Circumstances
While the comprehensive death toll remains contested, human rights organizations have verified hundreds of individual victims, many killed in circumstances directly involving hospitals or medical facilities:
Milad Atmani: A Kurdish citizen from Salmas, Milad Atmani was seriously wounded and arrested after being shot by military and security forces during protests in Tehran on January 8, 2026. For days, his family received no information about his condition, and their efforts to locate his detention facility proved unsuccessful. On January 20, security forces summoned the family to Tehran and handed over Atmani's body. It remains unclear whether he died from torture in detention or from the severity of his gunshot wounds—both scenarios indicating security forces denied him adequate medical care.
Hossein Rahimi: As documented previously, this 44-year-old married resident of Isfahan was shot in both legs before reaching a protest site, transferred to Kashani Hospital for treatment, then executed when government forces raided the facility. His body was buried at Bagh-e Rezvan Cemetery under security force supervision.
Mohammad Nobakht: An 18-year-old resident of Qods neighborhood in Tehran, Nobakht died in hospital on Thursday, January 16, 2026, after spending eight days in a coma. He had been critically injured by live ammunition fired by government forces during protests, sustaining severe internal injuries including damage to his stomach and kidneys. His death after eight days of intensive care demonstrates that even those who received hospital treatment often succumbed to the severity of their injuries.
Zahra Moradi, Golaleh Mahmoudi-Azar, and Other Kurdish Victims: Seven Kurdish protesters were killed during protests in Tehran on January 8, including Erfan Alizadeh (24) from Lumar in Ilam Province; Zahra Moradi from Bukan; Golaleh Mahmoudi-Azar (28) from Mahabad; Siavash Shirzad from Bukan; Rebin Moradi (17), a footballer with the Saipa youth team; Seyyed Milad Hosseini; and Ali Abbasi (18) from Gilan-e Gharb. Several families were forced to pay up to 10 billion rials to receive bodies, and most funerals were held under heavy security pressure.
Bijan Mostafavi, Zahra Bani Amerian, and Danial Mostafavi: Three members of the same family were killed after their car came under fire from security forces in Karaj on January 9. The victims—a retired education worker, his wife (a retired social security employee), and their 19-year-old university student son—illustrate the indiscriminate nature of the violence, with security forces firing on civilian vehicles.
Children Among the Dead: Multiple sources documented children among those killed. An Iranian doctor in Nishapur reported that security forces killed "at least 30 people" and "among them were children," specifically noting "a 5-year-old child was shot while in their mother's arms". The U.S.-based HRANA reported that at least seven deceased protesters were under 18 years old. Cemetery witnesses at Behesht-e Zahra described small body bags for children estimated at 10-12 years old being carelessly handled and crushed beneath adult bodies.
These documented cases represent a fraction of the total death toll, as the internet blackout, threats against families, and regime control of morgues prevented comprehensive documentation of all victims.
Historical Parallel: The 1988 Prison Massacre
Context and Circumstances
To fully comprehend the 2026 hospital executions, they must be situated within the historical pattern of mass atrocity crimes committed by the Islamic Republic when facing perceived existential threats. The 1988 prison massacre provides the essential precedent.
In the summer of 1988, following Iran's acceptance of a UN-brokered ceasefire in the devastating eight-year Iran-Iraq War, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the extrajudicial execution of thousands of political prisoners held in jails across Iran. The official acceptance of UN Security Council Resolution 598 on July 18, 1988 marked a humiliating defeat for Khomeini, who had previously declared "war until victory". The ceasefire represented not merely military setback but ideological failure—Khomeini himself described accepting the ceasefire as drinking "a chalice of poison".
Days after the ceasefire, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) launched Operation Mersad (known to them as Operation Eternal Light), with MEK forces attacking from Iraq. Although the operation was swiftly defeated with heavy MEK losses—estimates range from 1,700 to 4,500 killed—it provided Khomeini the pretext for a long-planned purge of political prisoners.
However, evidence indicates the massacre was planned before Operation Mersad commenced. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, Khomeini's heir apparent at the time, revealed in a secretly recorded 1988 meeting that "the Intelligence Ministry promoted the [plan for the mass execution of prisoners] and invested in it, and then three or four years ago Ahmad Agha [Khomeini's son] came along and said the Mojahedin-e-Khalq should all be executed". Montazeri stated that after the MEK attack, the Intelligence Ministry "thought it was a good time for someone to convince the imam [Khomeini] to agree to [the executions] and got a written order from him".
Khomeini's Fatwa and Death Commissions
On approximately July 28, 1988, Khomeini issued an undated fatwa ordering the execution of all imprisoned PMOI/MEK members who remained "steadfast" in their support for the organization. The fatwa's language was explicit and chilling:
"It is decreed that those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin [derogatory term for PMOI/MEK], are waging war on God and are condemned to execution... Even though a unanimous decision is better, the view of a majority of the three must prevail".
Khomeini ordered the formation of three-member "Death Commissions" comprising a religious judge, prosecutor, and representative from the Ministry of Intelligence. These panels operated in at least 96 cities across Iran, summoning prisoners individually for interrogations lasting 2-3 minutes. The sole question asked was: "What is your political affiliation?". If the prisoner answered "Mojahed" or refused to denounce the PMOI/MEK using the regime's derogatory term "Monafeq," they were immediately sent to execution.
Scale of the 1988 Massacre
Estimates of those executed vary significantly. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented between 2,800 and 5,000 deaths based on names collected from families and former prisoners. However, multiple sources from within the regime's inner circle have confirmed substantially higher figures:
Reza Malek, a former intelligence officer, revealed that according to documents he personally reviewed, 33,700 prisoners were executed in 1988.
Mohammad Nurizad, a former cultural advisor to Khamenei who later broke with the regime, confirmed that "in a span of two to three months, they beat up and murdered 33,000 imprisoned girls, boys, women and men and transferred their corpses by tipper trucks to Khavaran (a cemetery in south-east Tehran) and unknown deserts and buried them in groups".
The Iranian Resistance, after detailed study of evidence including thousands of reports, documents, interviews with victims' families, and testimony from the few survivors, declared the number at 30,000. This figure has gained increasing credibility as more former regime insiders have come forward.
The discrepancy between Amnesty/HRW estimates (2,800-5,000) and Iranian opposition figures (30,000-33,700) likely stems from methodological differences. International organizations documented only those cases where names could be verified and families interviewed, a near-impossible task given the regime's complete secrecy and intimidation of relatives. The higher estimates incorporate broader evidence including transportation logistics (truck loads of bodies), morgue capacity analysis, and testimony from officials with access to classified documents.
Perpetrators and Current Positions of Power
The 1988 massacre was orchestrated by individuals who later ascended to Iran's highest positions of authority—establishing a direct line of institutional continuity between the 1988 atrocities and the 2026 crackdown:
Ali Khamenei: In 1988, Khamenei served as President of Iran, one of three officials (alongside Khomeini's son Ahmad and then-Parliament Speaker Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani) who ensured implementation of Khomeini's execution orders at the highest level. Khamenei became Supreme Leader in 1989, inheriting Khomeini's absolute authority. In 2017, on the 28th anniversary of Khomeini's death, Khamenei publicly defended the 1988 massacre, warning: "We should be careful not to change the places of the martyrs with the killers," referring to security forces as "martyrs" and executed political prisoners as "killers". His defense of the 1988 massacre established the ideological framework for the 2026 hospital executions.
Ebrahim Raisi: In 1988, Raisi served as Deputy Prosecutor of Tehran and was a member of the Death Commission operating in Evin and Gohardasht prisons. According to eyewitness reports, although Morteza Eshraqi held the title of Prosecutor, Raisi "actually played the role of Prosecutor" and received special missions from Khomeini to carry out purges in other provinces including Lorestan, Kermanshah, and Semnan. Khomeini gave Raisi full authority, exempting him from any administrative or governmental restrictions. Raisi later became Judiciary Chief (2019-2021) and President of Iran (2021-2024), dying in a helicopter crash in May 2024. His elevation to the presidency in 2021, despite documented involvement in crimes against humanity, demonstrated the regime's complete rejection of accountability.
Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei: In 1988, Mohseni-Ejei served as the Judiciary's representative in the Intelligence Ministry and allegedly played an active role in the decision-making circle responsible for implementing extrajudicial death sentences. Human Rights Watch called for him to be tried for crimes against humanity. In January 2026, as Judiciary Chief appointed by Khamenei, Mohseni-Ejei issued the directive for "maximum punishment" of protesters following Khamenei's January 9 speech. His continuity from the 1988 massacre to the 2026 crackdown exemplifies the institutionalization of mass killing within Iran's judicial apparatus.
Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi: Serving as Deputy Minister of Intelligence in 1988, Pour-Mohammadi was a member of the Tehran Death Commission. In July 2019, while serving as adviser to the Chief of the Judiciary, Pour-Mohammadi claimed that the elimination of the PMOI/MEK must continue based on Khomeini's fatwa—indicating the 1988 directive remains active policy.
Burial and Concealment
Victims of the 1988 massacre were buried in unmarked mass graves, primarily at Khavaran cemetery in southeast Tehran. Families were systematically denied information about their relatives' fate, told that loved ones had been "transferred to another prison" or simply disappeared. Bodies were transported by trucks—often tipper trucks normally used for construction—and buried in mass graves without Islamic funeral rites.
The regime has systematically destroyed evidence of the 1988 massacre. In 2015, authorities used bulldozers to demolish sections of Khavaran cemetery. In August 2025, acting under direct orders from Khamenei, the regime used heavy machinery to demolish and flatten graves in Section 41 of Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, the burial site of thousands of political prisoners executed during the 1980s, converting it into a parking lot. Tehran's Deputy Mayor openly confirmed this destruction, stating: "Section 41, which had been left abandoned, be turned into a parking lot. We received permission and carried out the project".
This destruction of burial sites serves multiple purposes: eliminating forensic evidence that could be used in international prosecutions, preventing sites from becoming memorialization points for opposition movements, and demonstrating continued impunity.
Comparative Analysis: 1988 and 2026
Parallel 1: Regime Facing Existential Crisis
Both mass killing events occurred when the Islamic Republic perceived fundamental threats to its survival:
1988 Context: The ceasefire ending the Iran-Iraq War represented catastrophic defeat for Khomeini's ideological project. After eight years of warfare and hundreds of thousands of casualties, Iran gained virtually nothing while accepting terms it had rejected years earlier when in a stronger military position. The combination of military defeat and the MEK's Operation Mersad created fear that political opposition might capitalize on the regime's weakness.
2026 Context: The January 2026 uprising erupted following economic collapse, with the rial experiencing catastrophic devaluation and soaring prices for essential goods making life untenable for ordinary Iranians. Unlike previous episodic protests, the 2026 demonstrations achieved unprecedented national synchronization, social breadth, and symbolic convergence. Millions participated across 185 cities in all 31 provinces, representing the most severe challenge to regime legitimacy since 1979. The economic crisis, compounded by decades of sanctions and mismanagement, suggested systemic failure rather than temporary hardship.
In both cases, the regime responded to perceived existential threats with preemptive mass killing designed to eliminate opposition before it could organize further.
Parallel 2: Direct Orders from Supreme Leader
Both massacres were authorized by the highest religious and political authority in Iran:
1988: Khomeini's fatwa explicitly ordered: "Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately. Those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin, are waging war on God and are condemned to execution". This directive removed all judicial and administrative constraints, creating a legal-religious framework for Death Commissions to operate without oversight.
2026: Khamenei's January 9 speech employed similar dehumanizing language ("vandals," "mercenaries," "harmful elements") and explicit operational directives: "The security forces... must be in the field with full authority. There must be no backing down against the vandals". Sources confirmed the killing was carried out on Khamenei's direct order with full approval from the Supreme National Security Council.
The continuity of language and authority—Supreme Leader issuing religious-political justification for mass killing—demonstrates an institutionalized doctrine of extermination applied when the regime feels threatened.
Parallel 3: Same Perpetrators in Positions of Power
The most chilling parallel is the personnel continuity:
Ali Khamenei progressed from President (1988) ensuring implementation of Khomeini's fatwa to Supreme Leader (2026) issuing his own directive for mass killing.
Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei advanced from Intelligence Ministry representative (1988) facilitating extrajudicial executions to Judiciary Chief (2026) ordering "maximum punishment" of protesters.
Ebrahim Raisi rose from Death Commission member (1988) executing thousands to President (2021-2024) overseeing intensified repression before his death in May 2024.
This continuity demonstrates that the Islamic Republic rewards perpetrators of mass atrocities with promotion rather than prosecution, creating institutional incentives for extreme violence against perceived opponents.
Parallel 4: Information Blackout and Concealment
Both massacres were conducted under conditions designed to prevent documentation:
1988: The executions were carried out in complete secrecy within prison walls. Families were denied information, bodies were buried in unmarked mass graves at night, and official acknowledgment was systematically refused. The scale of killing only emerged years later through survivor testimony and whistleblowers from within the regime.
2026: Authorities imposed a comprehensive internet and telecommunications blackout from January 8, 2026 onward, effectively creating a "digital curtain" to conceal the massacre. NetBlocks confirmed Iran remained largely offline for over 132 hours, obscuring the scale of casualties. Security forces raided homes confiscating Starlink terminals, satellite dishes, computers, and mobile phones to prevent information transmission abroad.
The difference is that in 2026, the volume of deaths overwhelmed concealment capacity. Morgues like Kahrizak were so flooded with bodies that authorities briefly allowed families access, enabling limited video documentation that circumvented the blackout.
Parallel 5: Violation of Protected Spaces
Both massacres involved systematic violation of spaces that should be protected under domestic and international law:
1988: Prisons, where individuals are under state protection and custody, became execution chambers. Prisoners who had already been tried, sentenced, and were serving their terms were re-interrogated and executed without any legal process.
2026: Hospitals, protected under international humanitarian law as medical facilities, became sites of execution. Security forces violated medical neutrality, attacked healthcare workers, removed patients from operating rooms, and executed wounded individuals.
Both violations demonstrate the regime's complete rejection of legal and humanitarian norms when confronting opposition.
Parallel 6: Targeting of Specific Opposition Group
Both massacres disproportionately targeted supporters of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK):
1988: The vast majority of the 30,000 executed were PMOI/MEK members and supporters, though leftist prisoners were also killed. Khomeini's fatwa specifically targeted those "steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin [PMOI/MEK]".
2026: While the January 2026 uprising was spontaneous and broad-based rather than organized by any single group, the regime's propaganda consistently blamed "terrorists" linked to the PMOI/MEK, Israel, and the United States. This framing served to legitimize mass killing by portraying protesters as foreign agents rather than Iranian citizens with legitimate grievances.
The continuity of anti-PMOI/MEK rhetoric across both massacres reflects the organization's status as the regime's primary ideological enemy and provides religious-political justification for extermination.
Key Difference: Scale and Timeframe
The most significant difference is temporal compression:
1988: Approximately 30,000 executed over 3-4 months (July-September/October 1988) in controlled prison environments.
2026: Estimates of 6,000-30,000 killed over days to weeks (primarily January 8-15, 2026) in public streets and hospitals.
If higher-end estimates prove accurate, the 2026 massacre achieved comparable or greater lethality in a dramatically shorter timeframe, indicating intensified capacity and willingness to employ lethal force against civilians.
Legal Analysis: Crimes Against Humanity
The hospital executions and broader 2026 crackdown constitute crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, specifically:
Article 7(1)(a) - Murder: The widespread and systematic killing of protesters, including execution of hospitalized patients, constitutes murder as part of an attack directed against a civilian population.
Article 7(1)(e) - Imprisonment or severe deprivation of physical liberty: The arbitrary arrest of over 26,000-27,000 protesters, including hundreds of children, without legal process constitutes severe deprivation of liberty.
Article 7(1)(f) - Torture: The systematic beating of medical staff, extraction of forced confessions under duress, and denial of medical care to wounded prisoners constitutes torture.
Article 7(1)(h) - Persecution: The targeting of protesters on political grounds, compounded by denial of fundamental rights including right to life, constitutes persecution of an identifiable group.
The attacks on hospitals specifically violate:
Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol I, Article 18: Medical units must be respected and protected at all times and shall not be the object of attack.
Geneva Conventions, Common Article 3: Persons taking no active part in hostilities, including the wounded and sick, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely.
Customary International Humanitarian Law, Rule 28: Medical units exclusively assigned to medical purposes must be respected and protected in all circumstances.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have all concluded that the hospital raids and executions constitute grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stated: "Hospitals are protected spaces, and medical workers are protected persons—there are no exceptions. By storming hospitals, beating medical staff, and attempting to arrest patients, Iranian authorities are committing grave violations".
The fact that these violations were committed pursuant to direct orders from Supreme Leader Khamenei and were systematic rather than isolated incidents establishes command responsibility under international criminal law.
Strategic Assessment and Implications
Indicator of Regime Fragility
The resort to hospital executions and industrial-scale killing paradoxically signals regime weakness rather than strength. Governments confident in their legitimacy do not execute wounded patients in operating rooms or stack children's bodies in cemetery warehouses. The 2026 crackdown's ferocity indicates the regime's assessment that the uprising represented an existential threat requiring extermination rather than mere suppression.
As noted by retired US Army officers analyzing the crackdown, revolutions differ from episodic unrest not by the scale of any single demonstration, but by their structure and direction—they are sustained rather than spontaneous, cumulative rather than cathartic. A state under revolutionary pressure must deploy coercion continuously rather than episodically, which is costly, exhausting, and politically corrosive. The need to execute hospitalized patients suggests the regime has lost the capacity to govern through normal administrative and security measures.
Implications for International Justice
The 2026 hospital executions present both challenges and opportunities for accountability:
Challenges:
Iran is not a party to the Rome Statute, limiting ICC jurisdiction
The UN Security Council is unlikely to refer the situation to the ICC due to Russian and Chinese vetoes
Domestic Iranian courts are controlled by the same officials who ordered the massacres
Evidence destruction and witness intimidation complicate documentation
Opportunities:
Universal jurisdiction provisions allow third countries to prosecute Iranian officials for crimes against humanity
The scale of video documentation from morgues and hospitals provides unprecedented evidence
Survivors and medical personnel who fled Iran can provide direct testimony
Financial records showing extortion payments for bodies establish systematic criminality
Significantly, UN Special Rapporteur Javaid Rehman determined in July 2024 that the 1988 executions constituted genocide with intent to exterminate political opponents. Rehman has called on UN member states to use universal jurisdiction to investigate, issue arrest warrants for, and prosecute those involved. The 2026 hospital executions provide additional evidence of ongoing crimes against humanity committed by the same regime apparatus.
Comparison to Other Mass Atrocities
The hospital executions find few parallels in contemporary conflicts:
Syria: While the Assad regime attacked hospitals, documentation of systematic execution of patients within medical facilities is less extensive
Myanmar: The military junta raided hospitals to arrest protesters but large-scale in-hospital executions have not been documented
Historical Precedents: The systematic execution of wounded patients in hospitals most closely resembles practices by totalitarian regimes (Nazi Germany, Khmer Rouge Cambodia) that international law developed specifically to prevent
The 2026 Iranian hospital executions thus represent a reversion to forms of atrocity that the post-World War II international legal order was designed to make impossible.
Conclusion: Institutionalized Mass Killing as Regime Doctrine
The January 2026 hospital executions, when analyzed alongside the 1988 prison massacre, reveal that mass killing of political opponents constitutes institutionalized doctrine within the Islamic Republic of Iran rather than aberrational excess. The continuity of perpetrators—Khamenei, Mohseni-Ejei, and until recently Raisi—across both atrocities demonstrates that the regime rewards such crimes with advancement to the highest positions of power.
This intelligence assessment has documented specific hospitals in Tehran (Milad, Imam Hossein, Farabi, Sina, Labbafinejad, Fayaz Bakhsh, Shahriar, Ibn Sina) and other cities (Poursina in Rasht, Imam Khomeini in Ilam, facilities in Shiraz, Kashani in Isfahan, hospitals in Karaj) where security forces executed wounded protesters or created conditions leading to deaths. It has identified the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Center and Behesht-e Zahra cemetery as primary body disposal sites, with documented evidence of hundreds to thousands of corpses processed through these facilities.
The command structure traces directly from Supreme Leader Khamenei's January 9, 2026 directive for security forces to act "with full authority" against "vandals" to operational implementation by the IRGC, Basij, and intelligence services. This mirrors the 1988 massacre's command chain from Khomeini's fatwa through Death Commissions to individual executioners.
The forensic evidence—bodies bearing both gunshot wounds and medical equipment like intravenous catheters, bullet entry wounds on foreheads with horizontal blood patterns indicating supine position, patients removed from operating rooms and shot—establishes that executions occurred within hospitals after medical treatment had commenced. Witness testimony from healthcare workers, including a nurse who confirmed seeing "finishing shots" before being killed herself, provides direct evidence of systematic murder of protected persons in protected spaces.
The death toll, whether 6,000 or 30,000, represents the Islamic Republic's deadliest crackdown in its 47-year history, potentially exceeding even the 1988 prison massacre in absolute numbers killed over a compressed timeframe. The willingness to execute children, shoot families in vehicles, and stack bodies carelessly in cemetery warehouses demonstrates complete dehumanization of protesters and abandonment of even performative restraint.
Most significantly, the 2026 hospital executions occurred 38 years after the 1988 prison massacre without any perpetrator of the earlier atrocity having faced accountability. Instead, those responsible ascended to supreme power. This absolute impunity has institutionalized mass killing as the regime's default response to existential threats, creating a precedent that when faced with potential overthrow, Iranian authorities will exterminate opposition on an industrial scale.
The international community's failure to hold perpetrators of the 1988 massacre accountable directly enabled the 2026 hospital executions. Unless the current cycle of impunity is broken through universal jurisdiction prosecutions, ICC referral mechanisms, or other accountability measures, the Islamic Republic will employ mass killing again when it next perceives threats to its survival. The hospital executions of January 2026, like the prison massacres of 1988, constitute crimes against humanity—but unlike 1988, the evidentiary record is more comprehensive, more witnesses have survived and fled, and international legal mechanisms are more developed. Whether this translates into actual accountability will determine whether the pattern of mass atrocities continues or finally faces meaningful consequences.
Summary Table: Confirmed Hospital Facilities and Death Counts
HospitalLocationDeaths/DetailsSourceMilad Hospital Tehran 70 dead (Jan 8)
Imam Hossein Hospital Tehran 70 dead (Jan 8)
Ibn Sina Hospital Tehran 23 dead (Jan 8)
Labbafinejad Hospital Tehran 7 dead, gunshot victims
Fayaz Bakhsh Hospital Tehran 15 dead (Jan 8)
Shahriar Hospital Tehran 32 dead (Jan 8)
Farabi Eye Hospital Tehran Crisis mode, 200-300 eye injuries
Sina Hospital Tehran (Hasanabad) Tear gas attack Jan 6, patients trapped
Hospital (unnamed) Eastern Tehran 40 dead, bodies stacked in prayer room
Poursina Hospital Rasht 70 dead, morgue overwhelmed
Imam Khomeini Hospital Ilam Multiple IRGC raids Jan 3-4, staff beaten
Kashani Hospital Isfahan In-hospital execution (Hossein Rahimi)
Hospitals (multiple) Shiraz Overwhelmed, surgery suspensions
Kasra Hospital Karaj Surrounded, "finishing shots" reported
Qassem Soleimani Hospital Karaj Surrounded, entrances blocked
Summary Table: Key Morgues and Cemeteries
FacilityLocationDetailsSourceKahrizak Forensic Center South Tehran 250-400+ bodies documented in videos
Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery Tehran Mass burials, bodies stacked in warehouses
Cemetery (unnamed) Mashhad 180-200 bodies buried before dawn Jan 9
Khavaran Cemetery Southeast Tehran 1988 mass graves, later partially destroyed
Summary Table: 1988-2026 Perpetrator Continuity
Individual1988 Position2026 PositionRoleAli Khamenei President Supreme Leader Ensured 1988 fatwa implementation; issued 2026 killing order
Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei Intelligence Ministry Judiciary Rep Judiciary Chief Facilitated 1988 executions; ordered 2026 "maximum punishment"
Ebrahim Raisi Tehran Death Commission Member President (2021-2024; died May 2024) Executed thousands in 1988; intensified repression 2021-2024
Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi Deputy Intelligence Minister Judiciary Adviser Death Commission 1988; declared continuing validity of fatwa 2019
Classification: INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENT
Distribution: TOP SECRET Authorized Recipients Only
Date: January 25, 2026
This report synthesizes information from 120+ verified sources including human rights organizations, medical testimony, video evidence, and historical documentation. All casualty figures represent minimum verified counts; actual totals likely exceed documented figures due to regime concealment efforts.
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