IRGC navy warns Iran's neighbors against serving as launchpad for attack
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy warned neighbors against allowing their territory to be used against Iran, saying the force has full control over the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which about one-fifth of global oil trade passes.
Arabian Peninsula neighbors have long hosted US military bases widely seen as a bulwark against Iran in the waterway through which much the world's oil exports flow.
“We are receiving real-time intelligence from the air, the surface, and beneath the waters of the Strait of Hormuz, and we have full control over it,” Mohammad Akbarzadeh, political deputy of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy said on Tuesday.
“Regional security depends on the decisions of Iran,” he added. “If the airspace, land, or territorial waters of neighboring countries are used against Iran, they will be considered hostile."
According to a message shared with Iran International from an alleged eyewitness, security forces in Mashhad stopped an ambulance during the January 7–9 protests and entered the vehicle.
Iran International could not immediately corroborate the veracity of the account amid an internet shutdown authorities imposed on Jan. 8 lingers.
The source says they then fatally shot five wounded protesters inside, reportedly including a 15‑year‑old girl, and threatened the ambulance driver and doctor to stop treating injured demonstrators.
The same source also said several people who were previously arrested alive were returned to their families about a week later shot dead.
Iranian authorities are arresting medical professionals for treating injured anti-government protesters, according to London-based oncology professor Shahram Kurdasti from King's College.
Named detainees cited by the professor include urologist Alireza Rezaei in Tehran, healthcare employee Matin Moradian in Mashhad, neurosurgeon Saber Dehghan in Sirjan, general surgeon Farhad Naderi in Gorgan, and Ameneh Soleimani in Ardabil.
The crackdown aims to intimidate healthcare workers and conceal evidence of violence against demonstrators, Kurdasti told Iran International, adding that medical neutrality is a core ethical duty and treating the injured is not a crime.
Its emotional sting is so sharp that Iranian state media is seeking to dismiss the heart-rending scene as a fake aimed at sapping national morale, in an effort that was refuted by online sleuths.
Filmed inside the Kahrizak forensic complex, the film shows rows of black body bags laid side by side spilling onto outside pavements on a blustery day.
The father calling out again and again to his missing son Sepehr as if he could answer as he navigates among hundreds of bodies and shrieking loved ones.
Over the course of nearly twelve minutes, the father moves through the nightmarish space, stepping past blood trails left by dragged corpses and parents opening body bags to discover slain sons.
His voice trembles as he calls out: “Sepehr, daddy's Sepehr, where are you, my son? Sepehr, get up, I’ve come for you! I’ll find you, son!”
Screams and sobs from disconsolate relatives punctuate his walk. “Khamenei, you bastard, may God curse you," he finally mumbles weakly. "Come and see what you’ve done … you’ve killed so many young people.”
The video never shows whether the father ultimately finds his son, intensifying the tragedy for many viewers.
State media pushback
Almost simultaneously with the video’s circulation, reports emerged of the death of another young protester, Sepehr Ebrahimi, a 19-year-old amateur boxer killed during protests in Andisheh town in the west of Tehran.
Iran’s state broadcaster, which has a long record of reshaping protest narratives and airing interviews with families under pressure from security agencies, aired a clearly scripted interview with Ebrahimi’s family. The segment framed the viral video as a fabrication by opposition media.
In the broadcast, Ebrahimi’s parents denied any connection to the 'Where are you, son' video, describing themselves as loyal supporters of the Islamic Republic.
His father said their son had left home only to go to a sports club and was killed “for the homeland and the Islamic system” by “rioters and terrorists.” He added that he was an active Basij member and that his brother had died in the Iran-Iraq war. Ebrahimi’s mother spoke of her son’s devotion to the Quran.
The broadcast immediately circulated online, where pro-government users used it to discredit critics and protest reporters.
One wrote: “They made Sepehr their symbol, but didn’t know he was religious, Quran-reading, an athlete — with a Basiji father and a martyr uncle. Now go look for a new project.”
Another added: “The counter-revolutionaries make a business out of people’s pain. But the voices of Sepehr’s parents were a strong slap in the face of this dark trade.”
For many Iranians, the episode recalled 2022, when state TV aired coerced statements from relatives of Nika Shakarami, a 16-year-old protester, to falsely claim she had committed suicide.
A longer cut emerges
In the initial version published by activist journalist Vahid Online, Sepehr’s surname is not mentioned. After the state TV broadcast, Vahid released a longer cut of the video containing additional audio.
In the longer cut, the father can be heard clearly saying the family name “Shokri” while searching among the bodies — confirming that the Sepehr in the video was not Sepehr Ebrahimi. Subsequently, photos of the 25-year-old Sepehr Shokri and footage of his funeral emerged on social media.
One X user noted: “The fact that the Islamic Republic could immediately find a Sepehr Ebrahimi to cover up the killing of another Sepehr shows how many bodies were there — enough to randomly pick one of the Sepehrs.”
Meanwhile, social media users examining Ebrahimi’s Instagram activity reported that he was indeed a protester and had liked posts by US-based exiled Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi, contradicting claims that he was not a protester.
Efforts by Iran International to reach the family and ascertain whether Sepehr was found have not succeeded as an internet blackout in place since Jan. 8 persists.
For those who have watched his father's misery and shared his heartbreak, closure remains elusive.
