According to a report, personnel at stated that their medical facilities are being overwhelmed by injuries, including gunshot wounds, amid widespread anti-government protests across the Islamic Republic.
A physician from Tehran’s Farabi Hospital, the city’s primary ophthalmology center, informed the BBC late Friday that the hospital had shifted to crisis mode, with emergency departments overwhelmed and non-urgent admissions halted.
A medical worker from a Shiraz hospital also told the network that numerous injured individuals were arriving at the facility, even though it lacked sufficient surgeons to treat them. The medic added that many of the wounded had sustained gunshot wounds to the head and eyes.
As of Saturday, the death toll has risen to at least 72, with more than 2,300 others arrested, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
The demonstrations started late last month when shopkeepers and bazaar merchants protested against rising inflation and , which had lost approximately half its value against the dollar in the previous year. Inflation exceeded 40% in December. The unrest quickly spread to universities and provincial cities, where young men confronted security forces.
During a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, President stated that Iran is experiencing increasing pressure.
“Iran is in serious trouble,” Trump remarked. “It appears to me that protesters are gaining control of certain cities that seemed impossible just weeks ago. We are monitoring the situation very closely.”
would react forcefully if the regime engages in mass violence. “We will strike them very hard in vulnerable areas. This doesn’t involve ground troops, but it means hitting them extremely hard where it hurts.”
Supreme Leader a forthcoming crackdown, in defiance of U.S. warnings, according to The Associated Press.
Tehran intensified its threats on Saturday, as Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, cautioned that anyone participating in protests would be deemed an “enemy of God,” a capital offense. The statement broadcast by Iranian state television indicated that even individuals who “assisted rioters” would be subject to the charge.
“Prosecutors must meticulously and promptly, through issuing indictments, lay the groundwork for trials and decisive action against those who, by betraying the nation and fostering insecurity, seek foreign control over the country,” the statement declared. “Legal proceedings must be carried out without mercy, sympathy, or leniency.”
U.S. Secretary of State expressed support for the demonstrators.
“The United States stands with the courageous people of Iran,” Rubio posted on X Saturday.
Efrat Lachter and