Basij Forces Kill Civilians at Checkpoints in Iran

Iranwire – Hooman Kiani had plans. The 22-year-old business management student aspired to become a nurse, just like his father, a medical technician.

He was preparing for university entrance exams while working emergency response shifts alongside his father at Al-Zahra Teaching Hospital in Isfahan.

He never made it to those exams.

On the evening of June 15, two days after Israeli forces struck targets across Iran, Kiani and a friend were driving home through the Mardavij neighborhood when they encountered a Basij checkpoint around 11 p.m.

According to the Amirkabir student newsletter, which published documents related to the incident last week, the driver stopped slightly late. Basij forces opened fire without warning.

Two bullets struck Kiani in the chest, piercing his lung and liver. His friend was shot in the leg. Hours after midnight, following emergency surgery to drain blood from his chest cavity and repair his lung, Kiani suffered cardiac arrest due to massive internal bleeding.

He died at the same hospital where he had trained to save lives.

During and after the 12-day war between Israel and Iran this summer, at least six documented cases emerged of Basij forces and plainclothes Revolutionary Guard members shooting civilians at checkpoints across Iran. 

Among the victims were several young people, including a 3-year-old girl and her family.

The pattern raises urgent questions about rules of engagement, accountability, and what critics describe as a climate of impunity for security forces operating under wartime conditions.

The violence intensified after June 13, when Israeli forces conducted strikes against Iran. Iranian authorities responded by deploying Basij militia members and plainclothes Revolutionary Guard personnel throughout major cities.

Reports from multiple cities described aggressive behavior by these forces – demanding phone passwords, checking cameras and messages, and searching social media accounts.

Iranian judicial authorities later announced prosecution proceedings against 21,000 citizens for alleged cooperation with or espionage for Israel.

Some citizens received lengthy prison sentences for social media posts.

Against this backdrop of heightened security and suspicion, the shootings began.

Four days before Kiani’s death, 22-year-old Hesam Salmani entered the Eram neighborhood in northwestern Tabriz with a friend.

According to IranWire sources, Salmani had been drinking and feared arrest – alcohol consumption in Iran typically results in lashing.

When Basij members ordered his vehicle to stop, he hesitated. They opened fire with a barrage of bullets.

Salmani fell into a coma. After four days, on July 16, he died. IranWire sources reported that Revolutionary Guard forces visited his parents’ home daily, pressuring them to remain silent about their son’s death. He was buried at Vadi Rahmat Cemetery in Tabriz.

Days earlier in Abadan, Basij patrol forces shot 21-year-old Reza Hamidavi in the head, killing him instantly.

IRGC Intelligence Unit 114, which reportedly used the patrol members involved, claimed to have found micro-drones and explosive materials in their vehicle.

The Basij alleged they possessed documents proving Hamidavi’s cooperation with Israel.

In Hamadan, just days after an unofficial ceasefire between Iran and Israel, two more young men were killed.

Mehdi Abaei and Alireza Karbasi, described by human rights media as nature tourists, were in a vehicle when agents opened fire.

Iranian media reported that the men “did not heed the stop command and warning shots.” A third passenger was wounded and hospitalized.

At Karbasi’s burial, his mother said, “His father and I swear in your presence that we will preserve this pure blood until full retribution.”

Another shooting involved 3-year-old Raha Sheikhi from Khomein. Security forces opened fire on the family’s vehicle, killing Raha along with her mother, Farzaneh Heydari; her father, Mohammad Hossein Sheikhi; and a relative, Sedigheh Sheikhi.

The child’s death sparked widespread outrage among activists and citizens, drawing comparisons to 9-year-old Kian Pirfalak, who was killed by security forces in Izeh on November 16, 2022, during nationwide protests.

The Iranian government declared Raha and her family “martyrs.”

According to Musa Barzin, a jurist and legal advisor to IranWire, the Basij forces operating these checkpoints have no legal authority to do so under Iranian law.

“The Basij is not covered by the law governing the use of weapons by armed forces in necessary situations, nor can they legally use weapons at all,” Barzin said. “Any action they take in this regard is illegal.”

Iranian law permits only law enforcement forces, the army, and the Revolutionary Guards to carry weapons.

The Basij, technically a volunteer militia, falls outside these categories. Yet they routinely establish checkpoints and carry firearms.

“Basically, only the police can establish checkpoints,” Barzin explained. “The Basij does not have that right, although they do it anyway.”

Even for authorized security forces, Iranian law strictly governs the use of weapons. The law permits the use of lethal force only when necessary and requires adherence to specific protocols.

“All these recent cases have occurred in cities, where the possibility of someone escaping is minimal,” Barzin said. “If they can’t catch the person immediately, they can pursue them later. There was no necessity to use weapons in any of these cases.”

When Basij forces kill a citizen, Barzin said, “It constitutes premeditated murder, and the prosecutor and court must open a case for them as such, based on complaints from the victims’ families.”

A civil activist in Iran described the shootings as part of an unofficial judicial immunity granted to security forces during times of crisis.

“Just as we witnessed the unrestricted actions of government agents during protests, arming even child members of the Basij, the same situation occurred during the 12-day war and continues now,” the activist said.

The reference points to documented instances during recent years’ protests in which images and videos showed Basij members under age 18 carrying batons and suppression equipment while confronting demonstrators.

The activist characterized repression as the government’s primary response to all challenges.

“When we see the harsh treatment of government agents toward well-known civil activists during the war, we can understand what they are capable of doing to ordinary people, those who have no voice, including direct shootings at young people, children, and women,” the activist said.

Kiani’s family, according to the Amirkabir newsletter, is demanding “clarification of all aspects of the incident and accountability from officials regarding how and why their son’s car was directly fired upon.”

The newsletter published four pieces of evidence: Kiani’s burial permit, his medical file summary, a photograph showing four bullet holes in the car’s windshield, and an image of the young man’s face wrapped in what appears to be a blood-stained shroud.