Month: March 2026

Mezha – In the last 24 hours, there have been at least 104 strikes against Iran across 19 provinces, resulting in 31 people killed or injured, according to data from the human rights organization HRANA, released on March 3.

According to rights groups, during the latest reporting period 15 civilians and 12 military personnel were killed; other casualties are being clarified. Since the start of the conflict on February 28, HRANA has documented 1,097 deaths among civilians and 5,402 injuries, including among children. The group also reported strikes that damaged military bases, medical facilities, and residential areas across the country.

HRANA, the information agency of the US-based human rights organization “Human Rights Activists in Iran,” tracks human rights abuses and the consequences of the conflict through a network of local sources and open-source verification.

Safety of journalists and detainees

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has voiced serious concerns about the safety of media workers detained in Iran amid rising regional tensions, and urged the country’s authorities to release them immediately. CPJ reports that at least 15 journalists remain behind bars, including American and Iranian citizens, former Iran Desk journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Reza Valizadeh, Japanese journalist Shinnosuke Kawasami, and Mohammad Zare-Fumani, who are held in Tehran’s Evin Prison.

The report also notes that the prison is located in a district whose residents were evacuated following an order by the Israeli military, raising concerns about the detainees’ safety. CPJ also warned of an almost complete Internet shutdown and serious disruptions in communications that cut detainees off from families and the outside world.

Human rights groups and relatives have reported deteriorating conditions in Evin, including food shortages and the withdrawal of the prison administration, which heightens concerns about the detainees’ condition.

Geopolitical consequences and regional dynamics

Since February 28, the United States and Israel have been striking Iran’s military and nuclear infrastructure, as well as government buildings. U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the operation’s aim is to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful and not aimed at weapon development.

The joint operation by the United States and Israel led to the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a significant number of other senior regime officials. In response, Iranian forces attacked with missiles and drones not only Israel and U.S. military targets in the region, but also many of its regional neighbors whom Tehran regards as US allies.

As a result of Iranian strikes, six U.S. service members were killed, and casualties among the region’s civilian population were recorded.

In light of these events, human rights groups emphasize the need to maintain humanitarian support for civilians and to uphold basic human rights. Such events underscore the importance of international response and accountability for the use of force in accordance with international law.

The post HRANA Documents 104 Strikes Across Iran, Casualties Rise appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.

CNA – The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has reported that 1,097 people have been reported killed in Iran since February 28.

Of these, 181 were children under the age of 10, the agency said. The number of civilians injured has reached 5,402, including 100 children, HRANA added.

According to HRANA, there have been at least 104 attacks in the last 24 hours alone. They have hit military bases, medical centers and residential areas.

The post Fifth day of war/ Over 1,000 people killed in Iran appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.

BBC – Iranians living and working in Oxford say they are “worried sick” about their friends and family members amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The post UK Iranians ‘worried sick’ amid ‘heartbreaking’ war appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.

NewsOnAir – Conflict in West Asia has intensified as Israel carried out a series of strikes on the Basij and internal security command centres in Tehran belonging to the Iranian regime. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a social media post that the targeted command centres were used by the Iranian regime to maintain control throughout Iran. The IDF also struck the regime’s missile launchers and other systems. The Israeli Air Force also said that Iranian soldiers who operated air defence systems against Air Force aircraft have been neutralised. Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported today that a mourning ceremony for Khamenei had been postponed and would be held later.

The post Conflict in West Asia intensifies as Israel attack security command centers in Tehran; over 1000 civilains reported to have been killed in Iran appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.

Balkan Web – More than 700 people have been killed in Iran since the war began on Saturday, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

There were also reports of damage to religious buildings and homes in the past 24 hours. Among them were a mosque in Karaj, a city near Tehran, several residential buildings, a governor’s office south of the capital, and the Shahid Bahonar Mole in Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz, according to the group. Iran also claimed damage to hospitals in Tehran.

HRANA says their analysis is preliminary and may change.

The post More than 700 civilians killed in Iran since the start of the war appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.

Counter Punch – When I was small my mother warned me never to approach a sick animal. The dying ones, she said, are the deadliest of all.

That hasn’t been my experience; most of the dying creatures I’ve encountered just want a quiet place to pass their final hours. The source of my mother’s anxiety was closer to home than she had yet to recognize, but her fear was palpable. She was haunted by the vision of her curly-haired child falling prey to some sickly, snarling, yellow-eyed feral creature with nothing left to lose. That’s a mother’s worst nightmare.

Flash forward to February 28, 2026. Dozens of schoolchildren were reported dead in “one of two strikes that appear to have hit schools since U.S. and Israeli warplanes launched their attack on Iran around 10 a.m. local time.” It was a mother’s worst fear come true, many times over.[1]

Why would Israel and the United States kill children? The genocide in Gaza has made it clear that neither country is shy about the systematic extermination of the very young when it serves their strategic interests. These deaths, however, seem to be the products of tactical indifference rather than intentional annihilation. The girls’ school was near an Iranian naval base, and the high school was in the neighborhood where former Iranian president Ahmadinejad lived and was targeted by bombers.[2]

This is how dying animals behave in a mother’s nightmare. They’re not looking for human children to kill—not the way an airborne raptor or an IDF soldier would. They simply lash out blindly in a desperate fight against the inevitable. Sometimes children get in the way.

Yes, Ayatollah Khamenei is dead. Big deal. Others like him were already prepared to step in.

Our political culture is naive, almost childlike, in its attachment to the “great man” theory of history, with the “evil man” as its shadow side. Powerful figures do sometimes alter history, but only within those time-worn channels Tennyson called the “ringing grooves of change.” Khamenei’s power began with the US overthrow of the Iranian government in 1953, which set the stage for Iran’s current theocracy. The brutality of the Shah only hardened the steely resolve of Khamenei’s predecessor, who cast aside pro-democracy Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri to put Khamenei in power. If it hadn’t been him, it would been found someone equally hard-lined.

Trump and Netanyahu are merely the latest leaders to be vomited up from a groove whose name is “colonialism.” Its source is not the culture or beliefs of ancient Jewish tribes. This groove traces back to the chieftains and pagan shamans of pre-Christian Europe. It rings with the sound of cauldrons and cannons and the church bells of the inquisitor. If some of its own children must be sacrificed, too, so be it.

Once again, pro-democracy protesters have been betrayed by US-made bombs. Attacks by foreign countries almost always strengthen their current leadership and weaken protest movements. There’s no reason to think this time will be any different. Khamenei is almost certainly more powerful in martyrdom than he was in the last months of his life. The protesters must now wait for the inevitable betrayal. May they find solidarity in just people around the world.

As-yet-unconfirmed reports suggest that the bombers have targeted some of the leaders who are best positioned to form an independent government. That wouldn’t be surprising. The US and Israel don’t want an independent Iran. They want a vassal.

But wait, you say. Israel and the United States aren’t dying animals. They’re very much alive and will be for the foreseeable future. Don’t be so sure. Netanyahu has been clinging to power for years to avoid prosecution for a litany of corruption charges. Trump was also threatened by multiple prosecutions before winning re-election. Both men, having feasted lavishly on ill-gotten gains, were desperate to avoid the consequences of their own actions.

For Netanyahu, Israel’s future looks grim. Much of the world has turned against it. Public opinion is evolving from revulsion over its actions to doubts about its very legitimacy as a theocratic ethno-state. Public support for Israel, once considered immutable, has plummeted in the US and Western Europe, especially among younger people who are more likely to consider it an “apartheid state.”

Israel, dependent on Western largesse, is likely to face a critical decision when these generations assume power: become a truly democratic state that ends radicalized privilege or remain an unsustainable international pariah. Either way, the clock is almost certainly ticking on the era of Eretz Israel envisioned by Zionism’s founders. It may take decades, with great bloodshed along the way, but this change seems increasingly likely.

This is not an outré idea. Israel’s military and political leaders see this future almost as clearly as independent observers do. No wonder they’ve become increasingly open in their violence. It’s a sign of desperation as well as hate.

The United States may not disappear as a nation in the foreseeable future. But its global dominance and that of its elites will end, and probably soon. That prospect fills its current leaders with existential dread. Billionaires build airstrips in the Hamptons and rehearse the apocalypse in mountaintop retreats. Politicians try to seize control of oil-rich nations through brute force and feed the fantasy that exorbitant military spending can crush the spirit of independent peoples.

As the philosopher Antonio Gramsci wrote, “the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this twilight, a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”

Richard Nixon said this when he tried selling an equally delusional war to the American people: “If, when the chips are down, the world’s most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.”

The “forces of totalitarianism and anarchy” are us. Every war the US has fought in the intervening half-century has been a strategic and military failure. The United States has become a pitiful, violent giant—lethal and proud, but pitiful just the same. It spends itself into social oblivion for military machinery. It turns the technology of human suppression against its own population with increasing ferocity. As inequality surpasses that of the Gilded Age, software surveils our every move as drones and helicopters hover in the sky.

Every empire in history has eventually turned against its own people, and always at the same historical moment: right before it dies.

Trump and Netanyahu may parade before the cameras like winners, but they carry the stink of losers—moral, spiritual, and tactical losers. They’re pitiful because they’re desperate, and they’re desperate because their realms are dying. The grief of mothers and fathers mean nothing to creatures such as these.

Here’s a silent whisper for the wounded and discouraged, the grim-faced and the grieving, the unseen victims in Palestine and Yemen and Iran and around the globe: may they see with their hearts that time is running out for the Trumps and Netanyahus of their hearts. May they take comfort in the inevitability of their fall.

Yes, they’re still deadly. Of course they are. They’re killers. But so was John Wayne Gacy, and he was a clown.

Notes.

[1]The New York Times report continues: “Saturday is the start of the workweek in the country, and many Iranians had already dropped off their children and headed into their offices as explosions began to shake the capital and many cities across Iran.”

The Norwegian group Hengaw reported that 170 children were in class when the bombs fell on Shajarah Tayyebeh girls’ school. The Iranian Red Crescent said there were 60 fatalities, a figure that has since been revised upward. Other students were reportedly killed when bombs fell on Hedayat High School in Teheran.

If you’re planning to reply by saying there’s still no independent confirmation of these reports, don’t bother. They’ve been supported by two human rights organizations, Hengaw and the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, both of which have reported extensively on the Iranian government’s lethal and indefensible violence against protesters. (The US military’s CENTCOM has not denied these reports, saying only that it is “looking into them.”)

[2] Both killings may have been the result of AI “hallucinations”; this war appears to be the largest full-scale trial of AI to date. Coincidentally (or not), military AI was the subject of a piece that was pre-empted here by the attack on Iran. In any case, the moral responsibility doesn’t change whenever new technology is introduced.

The post How Deadly is a Dying Animal? Carnage in Iran Can’t Stop the Inevitable appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.

Chicago Tribune – In Skokie, an Iranian-American can’t get through to communicate with his father in Iran after a bomb fell in the father’s neighborhood, injuring him.

In Evanston, a Northwestern University professor speculates that time could be on Iran’s side.

And just south of Evanston, a professor says he can’t imagine his mother, family and friends in Iran being killed, and stresses that the Iranian people yearn for democracy and have been striving for it for a century.

When the United States and Israel launched a coordinated military attack against Iran early Saturday morning, subsequently killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials to ignite a regional war, the repercussions reverberated from the Middle East to the north suburbs of Chicago and elsewhere around the world.

Here, Iranian-American residents with ties to the region described a mix of emotions: fear, anger, relief, but above all, uncertainty over the future.

While some rallied against the United States’ involvement, arguing the attack could deepen regional instability and drag the country into further chaos, others reflected on the humanitarian impact and loss of life.

Mehrdad, a Skokie resident who would give only his first name for fear of retaliation against his family in Iran, said he hasn’t been in contact with anyone back home since learning an explosion in his father’s neighborhood over the weekend shattered the windows of his family’s home and injured him.

Most communication lines have been cut, and Mehrdad said he’s been unable to receive further updates regarding his father’s health.

“I just fear that a bunch of innocent people are gonna be killed,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ll get any freedom from the war.”

Mehrdad said he isn’t worried about the United States or Israel trying to control Iran’s leadership, but rather the loss of human life that will result from the conflict. “The people, they’re innocent people over there,” he said.

In January, Iranian-Americans staged a series of protests in Chicago in solidarity with the nearly 4,000 Iranian people who were killed during anti-government protests that erupted in December 2025 and triggered a communications blackout from inside the country, according to reports from the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

An additional rally broke out in downtown Chicago over the weekend after many Iranian-Americans learned of the death of Khamenei. While some residents celebrated in the streets for what they viewed as the end of an authoritarian dictatorship, others criticized what they believed was a misuse of power by President Trump.

“I think the American assessment was wrong, the assessment that if they decapitate the regime, everything would stop or change, or people could uphold the regime,” said Ali Tarokh, who lives in the far-North-side Chicago neighborhood of Rogers Park, near Evanston.

“They are very savvy, the Iranian regime.”

Tarokh said it’s been difficult to contact his family members and friends in Iran since the start of the attacks over the weekend.

He was able to reach his mother by phone shortly following the death of Khamenei on Saturday to confirm the reports she was hearing were true, but he hasn’t since been able to reach her or anyone else back home.

“I cannot even imagine my friends, my family getting killed by this war,” said Tarokh, who currently works as an adjunct professor of social welfare policy at Loyola University of Chicago.

“The entire country… is under attack now and nobody is safe.”

Tarokh immigrated to the United States over 13 years ago and became a naturalized citizen in 2018. He said the Iranian people have learned to navigate sustained conflict and diaspora for decades, living under an “absolute dictatorship” that arose following the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

But the people of Iran have, for more than 100 years, he said, continued to work towards a democracy, often at the expense of civilian lives.

“So many generations, so many people have worked so hard to build a democracy in our country…there are so many challenges, difficulties, and many people pay with their lives for that transition,” Tarokh said. “The question is for President Trump — Iran’s regime didn’t really (pose) a direct threat to the United States. [This] is a war of choice.”

“Regardless of if you are a Republican or a Democrat, nobody wants this war,” Tarokh added, “even his supporters, right? They voted for him because they didn’t want to go through another forever war.”

William Reno, professor and chair of the political science department at Northwestern University in Evanston, said dragging out the conflict into a long-term war may be advantageous for Iran.

“If you’re weaker, then the only way you can beat the strong is, you have to figure out what you have that they don’t have, one of which, in Iran’s case, is time,” Reno said.

“If Iran can survive the current regime, it wins by surviving. Whereas the United States, because it’s a foreign war… it becomes more and more of a political liability.”

Reno said the country’s frame of thinking is likely that if the United States is still engaged in a military conflict two or three months down the road, when the American electoral calendar is approaching, then it starts “looking really bad domestically.” But Reno said it’s still early in the process to make predictions.

“Maybe it turns out to be like Venezuela…get rid of the leader, somebody else pops up that [says] we’ll do what you want in international politics, and leave us alone for our domestic. We could, but we’re not seeing it yet.”

A spokesperson for the Chicago Persian School, a non-profit educational center offering language classes to students in the area wanting to learn Farsi, the Persian language, said the community was facing “intense and uncertain times” marked by emotions that range from “high hopes to anxiety and concern for loved ones.”

Because the institution self-identifies as a “non-political, non-religious non-profit,” Chicago Persian School declined to comment on the war itself or its impact on Iranian-Americans, who sometimes refer to themselves as Persian-Americans.

“At this time, our focus remains on supporting our students and their families by providing stability, cultural connection and a welcoming educational environment,” the spokesperson said.

While the Trump administration has consistently sought to pressure countries aligned with U.S. rivals to reorient themselves towards Washington, the end result has often led to greater instability, and in some cases, more lives lost.

“All conflicts are different” Reno said, “We’ll see how [this] works out.”

The post In the north suburbs, US attacks in Iran provoke fear: ‘Innocent people are gonna be killed’ appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.

France 24 – With global energy prices on the rise, Trump said the US Navy was ready to escort oil tankers through the Strait of the Hormuz, the vital chokepoint into the Gulf that Iran has threatened to seal off.

Risking more regional chaos, an Iranian drone attack struck near the US consulate in Dubai, starting a fire but inflicting no casualties, and the US military base at Al-Udeid in Qatar.

The attacks came a day after strikes on the US embassies in Riyadh and Kuwait City and on a US air base in Bahrain, as Washington ordered diplomats to evacuate.

“We are saying to the enemy that if it decides to hit our main centres, we will hit all economic centres in the region,” Islamic Revolutionary Guard General Ebrahim Jabbari said.

The United States and Israel launched the attack on Saturday and quickly killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, two days after US envoys had been speaking to Iran in Geneva on a nuclear accord.

Trump insisted that Iran wanted to resume talks but it was “too late”.

He also walked back a statement the day before from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said the US attack’s timing was precipitated by Israel’s plans to strike.

“If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand,” Trump said as he met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House.

Trump boasted that “just about everything’s been knocked out” in Iran, including its navy, air force and air detection, and said the attacks had killed even leaders who could have taken over.

“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” Trump said. “Now we have another group. They may be dead also, based on reports.”

According to Iranian media, US and Israeli strikes targeted a building on Tuesday in the holy city of Qom belonging to the committee that is to elect a new supreme leader. The Tasnim news agency reported that strikes had already targeted the body’s main headquarters in Tehran the day before.

Lebanon violence expands

The regional war also took a growing toll on Lebanon, where Hezbollah, the armed Shiite Muslim movement that long had Tehran as a benefactor, launched drones and rockets at Israel in retaliation for Khamenei’s slaying.

Hezbollah said it targeted the Israeli naval base in the northern city of Haifa and Israel said it struck Beirut’s heavily Shiite southern suburbs.

The United Nations said that more than 30,000 people were displaced in Lebanon, where dozens have been reported dead.

In a throwback to earlier wars, Israel said it was moving troops across the border to create a buffer zone inside Lebanon.

Loud explosions again hit Tehran, where photos showed damage to Mehrabad airport, which handles mainly domestic flights in Iran.

The Israeli military announced a strike on an underground facility on the eastern outskirts of Tehran where it said Iranian “scientists operated covertly to develop a key component for nuclear weapons”.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said the UN Security Council “has a duty” to act to stop the war, even as its military remained publicly defiant in the face of the campaign.

Iran has vowed to take an economic toll in retaliation for the war and to make the United States pay a cost.

The United States ordered non-emergency personnel to leave embassies in much of the region and encouraged all Americans to leave if they can find commercial flights, although air travel has been severely disrupted.

Qatar said it had downed missiles targeting Hamad International Airport in Doha, while Oman reported several drones attacking the port of Duqm, and in the UAE falling debris from an intercepted drone caused a fire at an oil storage and trading zone, authorities said.

Ghost town

In Tehran, residents who have not fled remained shut away in their homes for fear of the US-Israeli bombardment.

The Iranian capital is normally home to around 10 million people, but in recent days “there are so few people that you’d think no one ever lived here”, said Samireh, a 33-year-old nurse.

Authorities had previously urged people to leave the city, and police officers, armed security forces and armoured vehicles have been stationed at main junctions, carrying out random checks on vehicles.

In the more upmarket north of Tehran, the meowing of cats and chirping of birds replaced the usual din of traffic jams.

The assault came weeks after Iranian authorities clamped down on mass protests, although Trump has said that regime change is not his main goal.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar urged foreign capitals on Tuesday to cut all ties with Tehran “following the Iranian regime’s attacks on all its neighbours and the massacre of its own people”.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to the official Xinhua news agency, warned Saar in a call that Beijing opposes the strikes, saying the use of force “will only bring new problems”.

The post Iran hits US targets in Gulf as Tehran targeted appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.

Washington D.C – Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA) condemns in the strongest terms the ongoing conflict between the United States/Israel, and Iran, which has resulted in tragic civilian casualties, including children, damage to cultural heritage sites, and critical civilian infrastructure.

As of today, March 3, 2026, HRA has documented 912 civilian fatalities and 2580 civilian injuries as a result of this conflict. Among those killed, at least 181 were children under the age of ten. An additional 880 reported deaths are currently under review for classification and verification. These figures reflect a devastating and escalating human toll and represent absolute minimums.

The protection of civilians is not optional. It is a binding legal obligation.

Under international humanitarian law, all parties to hostilities are obligated at all times to distinguish between civilians and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives. They must adhere to the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution, which are binding and non-negotiable standards designed to protect human life. 

HRA has verified credible reports of attacks on at least seven medical centers and emergency health facilities. Hospitals, medical personnel, and health infrastructure are afforded specific and heightened protection under international humanitarian law. Attacks against them constitute serious violations of the laws of armed conflict. Damage to these facilities and the resulting disruption of healthcare delivery compound civilian suffering and breach fundamental legal protections.

HRA condemns any action that endangers protected civilian sites, even where they are not directly targeted. Incidental damage to hospitals, schools, residential areas, and essential infrastructure can constitute violations of international humanitarian law when parties fail to take all feasible precautions. The disruption of essential services further deepens civilian harm and undermines core legal safeguards.

HRA calls on all parties to immediately cease attacks on civilian infrastructure, particularly hospitals, schools, and residential areas, to ensure the protection of children and other non-combatants, and to comply fully and without exception with their obligations under international humanitarian law.

In addition to its humanitarian obligations, Iran remains bound by international human rights law. As US-Israeli strikes on Iran continue, Iranian authorities must ensure that civilians have access to information, communication, and emergency services. The continued restriction or shutdown of internet access during hostilities severely impedes civilians’ ability to obtain life-saving information, contact family members, access medical assistance, and document violations. 

Connectivity in conflict can be the difference between life and death. Iranian authorities must immediately restore full internet access and guarantee that civilians can communicate freely and safely. 

As one university student put it to HRA, “Ordinary people always pay the price for political decisions. We’re not at the negotiating table, and we’re not in the war rooms. But when missiles hit, it’s our homes that shake.” 

Armed conflict brings profound destruction and suffering to civilians and deepens humanitarian crises. HRA calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a renewed commitment to a peaceful resolution grounded in international law. The continued loss of civilian life, including that of children, underscores the urgent need to prioritize the protection of human life above all else. 

The post HRA Urges Immediate Halt to Hostilities Amid Rising Civilian Casualties appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.

The Guardian – Iranian drones hit the US embassy in Riyadh as Tehran continued to launch waves of retaliatory strikes at the Gulf and Israel, while Israeli soldiers began operating in southern Lebanon on the fourth day of an increasingly regional war in the Middle East.

A near-total internet blackout makes verifying civilians deaths extremely difficult. But the Human Rights Activists news agency, a US-based NGO focused on Iranian human rights, says US-Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 742 civilians, including 176 children, with hundreds more cases under review. Elsewhere, the Iranian Red Crescent Society reported a death toll of 787 people, and the Norway-based Hengaw said its count of the death toll was at least 1,500, including 200 civilians and 1,300 Iranian military members. The numbers are likely to rise.

Donald Trump said on Monday that the US campaign had been projected to last four to five weeks but could “go far longer than that”. The US state department has urged Americans to immediately leave more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as the conflict worsens.

The post First Thing: Conflict spirals in Middle East as NGO says at least 700 Iranian civilians killed appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.