The use of ambulances by the Islamic Republic security forces to transport combatants and weapons, as well as shooting civilians and arresting them, is a war crime.
In the two weeks since the Iranian people have been protesting the murder of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody, social media users have repeatedly warned that security forces have used ambulances to arrest and transport protestors.
Several videos have been published that show ambulances standing in line in front of detention centers and police stations, or other facilities that are connected to the authorities in some way.
Some show arrested people being transported by ambulance. In one, young people recover several others who had been arrested and were going to be transferred to the detention center by ambulance.
A picture taken by a Twitter user shows a vehicle painted to look like an ambulance bearing a green number plate, which indicates that it belongs to the military and security forces.
Pro-government forces and official media have reported that ambulances have been set on fire, calling protesters vandals and rioters.
Health minister Bahram Einollahi claimed on Tuesday that during the first 10 days of protests, 72 ambulances had been destroyed.
“The country is facing a shortage of ambulances and difficult conditions have been created,” he said.
At the same time, many users on social networks, especially Twitter, have warned about the potential violation of international laws, asking the International Committee of the Red Cross to prevent this practice.
Why and how does the security apparatus of the Islamic Republic use ambulances to capture transport its detainees – and is this a new practise?
Along with the increasing number of reports about the security forces using ambulances for cover, some users have called the issue to be addressed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which aims to safeguard humanitarian law during conflict.