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In Tehran, neighbours wonder where the next bombs will land

Financial Times – In Tehran, neighbours wonder where the next bombs will land

At about 4am one day this week, a three-storey house in a residential neighbourhood of western Tehran was obliterated in an air strike. The iron frame was torn apart and nearby buildings, including a high-rise across the street, were severely damaged.

Amid the shattered glass, confused and shocked neighbours gathered to make sense of the destruction. “Who lived there?” they asked, according to one person present at the scene. Rescue teams arrived with dogs, combing through the rubble for survivors. Locals later speculated that a commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps could have been the target, although it was not confirmed.

For residents of the city, dazed and ripped awake through the night by bombs that feel as if they are landing all around them, daily life seems like a gamble.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US would hit Iran “extremely hard” over the coming weeks and “bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong”. And Israel, which has led the bombing campaign on Tehran, announced last week an “acceleration” of attacks on what it said was its remaining list of military targets.

As they witness the daily destruction, many Iranians question the US-Israeli account that only military and regime figures are being struck. Yet many others suspect that the targets are real, which itself raises a scary prospect: that the next regime figure or military site on the list could be among them.
“How can we know who our neighbours are, or what this building was used for?” Parisa, who was jolted awake by the explosion, asked. The FT used pseudonyms for Parisa and others interviewed for this story.
Whatever the target, civilian structures are often caught in the blasts as nearby homes, hospitals and shopping centres have been damaged.
Nazanin, a resident of the middle-class neighbourhood of Tehran-Pars, described how she returned from a shopping trip to find the front of her living room — and new furniture inside — torn apart by a bomb that struck nearby.
The strike hit a small park, according to residents, which left many speculating about what the target could have been. “Two hours before the bombing, we left home,” she said. “When we returned, everything was massively damaged.”
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said it has confirmed 1,212 military and 1,606 civilian deaths in Iran since the start of the war, including those of at least 244 children. Iran’s Red Crescent has reported 21,000 civilian injuries.
Tehran, with its 10mn-strong population, has been hit hardest. The war began on February 28 when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his family and military leaders were killed in an attack on the supreme leader’s compound in the capital’s dense downtown.
Since then, the US and Israel have struck thousands of targets across the country, attacking officials in their homes and offices, along with barracks, urban police stations and checkpoints on the streets. Tehran is surrounded by military garrisons, many of which have been subsumed into residential neighbourhoods as the city has expanded.
They have also hit civilian infrastructure in and around Tehran, including fuel-storage depots, a university, pharmaceutical company, civilian airport and a stadium. Azadi Tower, a symbol of modern Tehran, as well as historic sites such as Golestan and Sa’dabad palaces, have also been damaged. There are no warning sirens, nor do residents have bomb shelters to go to.
Iran has retaliated with daily barrages of missiles and drones fired at Israel and Gulf states, hitting US bases, civilian infrastructure, energy facilities and international shipping. Several dozen people have been killed in Iran’s retaliatory strikes across the region.
Once a city of close-knit communities, Tehran was a place where residents knew and looked out for their neighbours. Today, following a boom in its population and with high-rises replacing the small homes and villas of the past, that sense of intimacy has faded.
Many of Tehran’s wealthier residents live in the north of the city, including government officials and military leaders. They tend to maintain low public profiles, their identities sometimes inferred by neighbours only from their conservative attire and their wives’ tight hijabs. Some senior military commanders live in protected areas in north-eastern Tehran.
The threat of having a regime official as a neighbour became a reality for an affluent district of northern Tehran on Wednesday, when Kamal Kharrazi, a former foreign minister and an adviser to the late supreme leader, appeared to be the target of an air strike, according to local media. He survived with serious injuries but his wife was killed.
Several nearby buildings were destroyed, one of which housed a bank, local media reported. Witnesses reported that some residents were trapped under the debris.
When Iran’s intelligence minister Esmail Khatib and his family were killed at home in the neighbourhood of Zaferaniyeh more than two weeks ago, a 26-year-old Kurdish blogger living across the street, Berivan Molani, also died, according to Iranian media reports and a human rights group.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern about the killing of children and “reports of strikes on civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, which have injured and traumatised children, and claimed many young lives”.
Both the US and Israel maintain they are targeting senior officials and military sites, and not civilians.
Despite the daily bombardment, some residents have sought to continue living life as normal. Many restaurants or coffee shops have remained open as locals try to keep their social lives going. Activity in the city is expected to pick up from Saturday, when the Persian New Year holiday ends and some of those who left the city return.
But the municipality is struggling to cope with the fallout of the conflict. Around 28,500 residential units have been damaged and 4,000 people have been left homeless, according to official figures, many seeking refuge in hotels provided by the municipality or with relatives.
Trump has threatened to launch even larger attacks on Iran’s infrastructure, including oil and desalination plants, if the Islamic republic does not make a deal to end the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Monday.
The sense of fear has dominated many residents’ lives, as they share stories that underscore how unpredictable the strikes feel.
“An apartment above a supermarket was hit, and we felt like we were going to be sent flying,” said Raheleh, a resident from Narmak, a middle-class area, of a nearby strike. “It was massive. We’re still not sure what was hit, but rumours say it was a Revolutionary Guards’ office. No one really knows.”
“They say they’re only targeting military sites and figures,” another person, Solmaz, added. “But what we see and care about is innocent people getting hurt.”

The post In Tehran, neighbours wonder where the next bombs will land appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.

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