LIKE HAMAS: IRGC Commanders Are Holding Meetings In Hospitals

Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps military commanders have been holding meetings in hospitals in recent days, a medical staff member in a hospital 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,” a hospital employee said.

Similar accounts from Shiraz, Gorgan, and Tehran describe armed personnel deployed in medical centers and, in some cases, gunfire from hospital rooftops toward protesters.

In recent days, security forces have also assembled at certain stadiums and sports arenas, which sources say is intended to protect personnel and equipment from possible U.S. or Israeli strikes by positioning them within densely populated civilian areas.

During the January 8–9 demonstrations and the days that followed, multiple testimonies described security activity conducted from inside public buildings. Witnesses and local media reported gunfire at protesters from within a governor’s office and from the roof of a hospital in Gorgan. In Arak and Sari, schools were reportedly used to house forces and detain suspects.

Political analyst and journalist Jamshid Barzegar said that the use of hospitals fro military activity reflects a pattern long observed in the Islamic Republic’s proxies.

“The Islamic Republic has once again brought inside the country a criminal pattern it has tested for years through its proxy forces in the region: militarizing civilian spaces and using civilians as human shields,” he said.

“Now that the Islamic Republic has cast the shadow of war over Iran, we are seeing the same methods being applied domestically. In the bloodiest and largest crackdown on public protests in Iran’s history during January 8 and 9 and the days after, the presence of security forces resembled the conduct of terror groups.”

“This is not only a sign of strategic weakness, but a message that the lives of ordinary Iranians carry little weight in the government’s calculations. When commanders enter hospitals with protection teams and hold non-medical meetings, they are effectively taking patients and medical staff hostage to their own security considerations,” Barzegar said. “There is no justification for using civilians as human shields.”