Tehran, Feb 21 (.) Iran’s powerful paramilitary theocratic guard, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commanders have been seen holding military meetings inside hospitals in recent days, leading to great concern over the growing militarisation of public venues and civil spaces, and the potential risks this poses to patients, medical workers, and the general public.
Several commanders of the Iranian military, alongside IRGC personnel – including clerical officials – convened sessions inside medical facilities over the past week, accompanied by security teams and held discussions unrelated to healthcare, an anonymous hospital employee in Tehran told Iran International.
“The presence of these individuals, along with their protection units, has alarmed staff because the meetings had nothing to do with medical matters,” the employee said.
The reports come against the backdrop of previous allegations that security forces used public institutions during times of mounting unrest, greatly blurring the line between civilian and military functions.
During Iran’s mass civilian protests on January 8-9, and the days that followed, multiple accounts have spoken of security officials operating from within public buildings, with witnesses and local media reporting live rounds being fired at waves of demonstrators from inside a governor’s office, and from the roof of a hospital in Gorgan. In Arak and Sari, schools were reportedly used as outposts to station forces and hold detainees.
Similar reports have emerged from Shiraz, Gorgan and Tehran, detailing the deployment of armed personnel in hospitals and, in some cases, gunfire emanating from rooftops of medical centers towards protesters. Authorities have not publicly clarified the scope or legal basis of such deployments.
Security forces have also gathered in recent days at certain large scale public venues, such as sport stadiums, and arenas, a move that has been described as an effort to shield military personnel and equipment from potential US or Israeli strikes by embedding them in densely populated civilian areas, and structures.
IRGC’s convening of military activities inside hospitals is not uncommon, and reflects a pattern long seen in the Islamic Republic’s regional alliances in Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon, where military or otherwise militant – terror groups embed themselves in civilian facilities – particularly at moments of strategic weakness – essentially using their own civilians as hostages by militarising public places like hospitals, schools, stadiums, etc, and turning civilians into meat shields, in attempts to both stall the enemy, or as a messaging tactic.
This trend has seen an upward slide in recent years as per insiders, which is particularly worrying as under the Geneva Convention using places like schools, colleges, hospitals, places of worship, stadiums, historic and cultural sites, parks, restaurants, hotels, shopping venues etc constitute war crimes.
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