Protests in Iran show no sign of easing, and the brutality of the regime against demonstrators is intensifying.

According to local sources who spoke with Iran International, regime forces reportedly opened fire on Wednesday night during funerals for slain protesters in two Iranian cities.

In Ilam Province in western Iran, local sources said regime forces attacked people after funeral ceremonies and fired shotgun rounds at mourners, injuring at least 100 people and deliberately blinding about 50 of them.

In Fars Province in the south, local sources reported that regime forces used live ammunition and shotgun fire during gatherings for the burials of protesters killed on January 8 and 9, killing 14 people and blinding 18 others.

Eyewitnesses told the outlet that medical facilities in several cities are running short of body bags due to the rising protest death toll, and described a heavy security deployment in hospitals and morgues.

Messages the outlet received from sources in Iran on Wednesday said that the shortage has caused bodies of protesters to pile up in hospital rooms and funeral homes, with regime forces intervening in the handover of remains to families.

According to these sources, hospital entrances are under close surveillance, medical staff and relatives are under pressure, and documentation of information about the dead is being limited in an effort to keep the real casualty figures from becoming public.

In Lorestan Province in western Iran, local sources reported that some 200 to 250 bodies are being kept in a hospital without proper handling or orderly release.

In Markazi Province in central Iran, and in Gorgan, the capital of Golestan Province in the northeast, the number of dead has reportedly exceeded morgue capacity, causing delays and restrictions on transferring bodies.

Local sources said similar scenes have been recorded in other cities, adding that these steps appear designed to conceal the extent of the killing and to curb the flow of information about those hurt or killed in the protests.

Separately, a monthly report documented hundreds of human rights violations across Iran, finding that at least 313 prisoners were executed by hanging since the protests began, according to the US-based human rights group HRANA.

The group said the executions occurred between December 22 and January 20 in prisons nationwide on a range of charges, and noted a sharp rise during this time in mass arrests, harsh sentences, and the use of excessive force by regime forces.

The report further stated that at least 52 people were executed in just 10 days in January, as protests spread and internet access was severely restricted.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)