Author: Keyvan Rafiee

The Telegraph – Iran recruits 12-year-olds to ‘defend homeland’

Iran is recruiting children as young as 12 to “defend the homeland” in a new nationwide campaign for the US-Israeli war.

Children will take part in surveillance, patrols and checkpoint inspections under the new plans announced last week by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC).

Registration booths have been set up at mosques and major city squares across Tehran, with similar campaigns expected in other cities.

Just days after the new recruitment campaign was launched, an 11-year-old boy was killed in a drone strike at a military checkpoint in Tehran.

Alireza Jafari, who under normal circumstances would have been in the fifth grade at school (Year 6), was instead stationed at the checkpoint on Artesh Highway, helping his father “defend Iran”.

The Basij Teachers Organisation confirmed that Alireza was killed “while on duty”, performing security tasks in a war that has already claimed nearly 1,600 civilian lives.

Alireza’s death highlighted concerns about the IRGC’s recruitment tactics for wartime security operations and its manpower problems.

His mother told the state-affiliated Hamshahri newspaper about the “personnel shortage” that led her husband to bring their son to work.

The “Defenders of the Homeland Iran” was announced by Rahim Nadali, the cultural and artistic deputy of the IRGC’s Mohammad Rasoulollah Corps in Tehran.

Mr Nadali told Iranian media the campaign responded to public demand for ways to support fighters against US-Israeli aggression, and allowed people to contribute based on their skills and expertise.

“We launched a plan we call ‘For Iran’, which is a registration programme for homeland defence fighters,” Mr Nadali said. “We set the minimum age at 12 years and above.”

The campaign encompasses multiple categories of service.

Operational and security roles include participation in intelligence patrols, checkpoint inspections and operational patrols.

Support and logistics duties involve vehicle convoys, financial contributions and equipment provision.

Service and supply tasks include cooking, distributing needed items to fighters and repairing homes damaged by attacks.

Medical roles call for doctors and nurses to staff clinics and treat the wounded.

The campaign openly violates international humanitarian law, which grants children a special protected status as civilians and prohibits their use in armed conflict.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court explicitly defines the recruitment or use of children under 15 in armed forces or hostilities as a war crime.

The death adds to mounting casualties in Iran’s month-long war with the United States and Israel.

According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency group, at least 1,568 Iranian civilians have been killed since fighting began on Feb 28, including 236 children.

The organisation documented 360 attacks across 199 incidents in 18 provinces on Saturday alone, with 70 per cent of strikes concentrated on Tehran’s residential neighbourhoods.

The Norway-based Hengaw rights group called the IRGC plan to recruit children a “systematic crime against children” and urged international bodies, including the United Nations and Unicef to increase legal and diplomatic pressure to prevent the use of minors in military roles.

Iran has a history of recruiting children for security and even combat roles, including deploying child soldiers during the 1980s war with Iraq.

Stories of children sacrificing themselves to destroy Iraqi tanks were taught in Iranian schools as part of ideological education.

In 2016, Human Rights Watch reported that Iran was recruiting Afghan children to fight in Syria.

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EuroNews – Trump says deal could be reached ‘soon’ as Iran warns against US ground invasion

Targets were hit by airstrikes in Iran overnight on Monday, with Tehran launching its own strikes on Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, even as US President Donald Trump repeated claims that a deal could be reached “soon” to end the war.

Trump, citing the number of Iranian leaders who have been killed in the month-long US-Israeli war against Iran, said regime change has already been achieved, and the new leadership is “much more reasonable”.

“We’ve had regime change,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We’re dealing with different people than anybody’s dealt with before. It’s a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change.”

Trump was asked aboard Air Force One if Iran had responded to a 15-point ceasefire plan the US has proposed and he said they did. “They gave us most of the points. Why wouldn’t they,” the US president said.

In Pakistan, the government is looking to capitalise on its links with Tehran and the Gulf states, as well as a budding rapport with Trump, to broker peace talks.

“Pakistan is very happy that both Iran and the US have expressed their confidence in Pakistan to facilitate the talks,” Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said.

But the speaker of Iran’s parliament has accused Washington of using diplomacy as a smoke screen.

“The enemy publicly sends messages of negotiation and dialogue while secretly planning a ground attack,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.

“Our men are waiting for the arrival of the American soldiers on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional allies once and for all,” he added.

Despite making diplomatic overtures, the US has also been sending more military assets into the region.

The USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship carrying around 3,500 Marines and sailors, arrived in the Middle East on Friday.

According to The Washington Post, the Pentagon was preparing plans for weeks of ground operations, potentially including raids on sites near the Strait of Hormuz, though Trump has yet to approve any deployment.

Power cuts in Tehran and surrounding areas

Iran launched strikes on Kuwait and Saudi Arabia after Iranian electrical facilities came under attack, cutting power to parts of Tehran and surrounding areas.

Iran’s energy ministry reported power outages in the capital Tehran, its surrounding region and neighbouring Alborz province on Sunday “following attacks on electricity industry facilities”.

It said “electricity was cut off in these areas, and efforts are being made to resolve the problem”, according to state television.

Trump has previously threatened to strike Iranian power stations if Tehran does not negotiate a peace deal, before repeatedly extending a deadline to do so.

An Iranian strike on a power station and water desalination in Kuwait killed one Indian worker and damaged a building at the site, the Gulf state’s electricity ministry said Monday.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said its forces detected and intercepted five ballistic missiles.

Iran’s energy ministry reported power outages in Tehran, the surrounding region, and Alborz province “following attacks on electricity industry facilities.”

Israel to expand invasion of southern Lebanon

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he had ordered the military “to further expand the existing security zone” as his country continues its ground invasion of its northern neighbour.

“This is intended to definitively neutralise the threat of invasion (by Hezbollah militants) and to keep anti-tank missile fire away from the border,” he said.

“Iran is no longer the same Iran, Hezbollah is no longer the same Hezbollah, and Hamas is no longer the same Hamas,” Netanyahu added.

“These are no longer terrorist armies threatening our existence — they are defeated enemies, fighting for their own survival.”

“We are determined, we are fighting, and with God’s help, we are winning,” Netanyahu said.

Death toll continues to rise

Lebanon’s health ministry said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed 1,238 people in the country since the start of the latest war with Hezbollah on 2 March.

The toll included 124 children, while more than 3,500 people had been wounded, the ministry said in a statement. On Saturday and Sunday alone, 49 people were killed, it said, including 10 rescue workers and three journalists.

The UN force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said one of its peacekeepers was killed after a projectile hit one of its positions late Sunday.

“A peacekeeper was tragically killed last night when a projectile exploded in a UNIFIL position near Adchit Al Qusayr,” said Monday’s statement. “Another was critically injured.”

The UNIFIL statement said it did not know the origin of the projectile but had launched an investigation to find out.

Iran’s government has not released an updated overall casualty toll in recent days, but the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said on 28 March that at least 3,461 people had been killed, including 1,551 civilians, among them at least 236 children.

Israeli emergency services and authorities say attacks have killed 19 civilians on the Israeli side since the start of the war, while authorities in Gulf states and the US Central Command (CENTCOM) have reported 38 people killed, including 19 civilians.

CENTCOM has confirmed six US service personnel killed in Kuwait and one killed in Saudi Arabia.

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Open – US-Iran War: What Has Happened in 31 Days of Conflict?

The United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran on February 28, 2026, under Operation Epic Fury. The Middle East conflict has since widened into Lebanon, the Gulf, and Iraq. Independent organisations estimate between 3,500 and 6,900 deaths in Iran, including over 1,500 civilians.

Operation Epic Fury began on February 28, 2026, during active nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran. The strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials. Omani foreign minister Badr Al-Busaidi had said a deal was within reach days before the strikes.

Iran launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel and US military bases across Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. The Pentagon confirmed the loss of at least 15 US soldiers and damage to 17 military sites. A US submarine sank an Iranian Navy frigate south of Sri Lanka, killing 104 Iranian sailors, according to the Iranian army. On March 31, Iran hit a Kuwaiti oil tanker, Al Salmi, at Dubai port in the latest Iran-Israel escalation.

What Is the Human and Military Toll?

HRANA and Hengaw estimate between 3,500 and 6,900 deaths in Iran, including over 1,500 civilians. The Iranian Health Ministry reports higher figures. The Pentagon estimates approximately 6,000 Iranian military personnel killed in the US-Iran war to date.

What Is the UNIFIL Crisis in Lebanon?

Hezbollah has fired rockets at Israel since March 2 as the IDF advances toward the Litani River. Three Indonesian UNIFIL peacekeepers were killed during IDF ground operations in southern Lebanon: one by a projectile near Adchit al-Qusayr, two by a vehicle explosion near Bani Hayyan. Guterres said the attacks on UNIFIL peacekeepers may amount to war crimes.

Where Do Diplomacy Efforts Stand?

The Trump administration proposed a 15-point ceasefire plan during Islamabad talks involving Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected it, calling it excessive. This Iran-Israel and US standoff leaves Pakistan as the sole active mediator.

Where Does the US-Iran War Stand Right Now?

Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz to adversaries while collecting tolls in Chinese Yuan from friendly nations. Mojtaba Khamenei has been elected as the new Supreme Leader in Tehran. The Trump administration has submitted a $200 billion supplemental funding request to Congress. The broader Middle East conflict shows no sign of resolution.

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The Hill – US strikes Iran city home to nuclear site

The U.S. military on Tuesday struck the Iranian city of Isfahan, where one of the country’s main nuclear sites is located.

The Isfahan Nuclear Energy Center was one of three facilities that U.S. B-2 bombers and a submarine hit last June. The Associated Press reported that analysts believe much of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely stored at the Isfahan site.

President Trump also shared a video of the aftermath on Truth Social, showing flames billowing into the sky as more missiles approached the area.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Tuesday at an early morning press briefing that U.S. forces bombed an ammunition depot in Isfahan.

The Wall Street Journal also reported the military hit the depot with 2,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, much smaller versions of the bombs used to strike the three nuclear facilities last summer, citing a U.S. official.

Alongside Hegseth, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine told reporters that the U.S. military has struck more than 11,000 targets inside Iran since the conflict broke out late last month. In an update on social platform X, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said it had targeted command and control centers, headquarters and intelligence sites of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, ballistic missile sites, navy ships and submarines and air defense systems.

As of Tuesday, 1,574 civilians in Iran, including at least 236 children, have been killed since the war began on Feb. 28, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

While the conflict continues, Trump has touted talks with Iranian officials while also threatening strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure and overseeing a build-up of U.S. troops in addition to the more than 50,000 service members already in the Middle East.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said that while officials from his country have not negotiated with members of the Trump administration since the war began, the U.S. submitted a “negotiation request” through intermediaries, including Pakistan.

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Vatican Post – Iran warns US over ‘boots on the ground’ reports

Iran’s parliament speaker warned that Iranian forces are “waiting for American soldiers to enter on the ground so they can rain fire upon them,” as tensions across the Middle East continue to rise.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf’s comments came after the United States said about 3,500 personnel had arrived in the region aboard the USS Tripoli.

The Pentagon is preparing for potential weeks of ground operations in Iran, though it is unclear whether President Donald Trump will authorize them, the Washington Post reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that Washington could meet its objectives in Iran “without any ground troops.”

Strikes continued across the region. Israel said it targeted temporary command centers in Tehran.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency, or Hrana, reported at least 701 attacks across Iran as of 5 p.m. ET on March 28, one of the highest single‑day totals since the war began a month ago.

Infrastructure in Gulf states has also been hit. Emirates Global Aluminium said its main plant in Abu Dhabi was “significantly damaged.”

Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched missile strikes toward Israel on Saturday and said more attacks would follow.

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Sydney Morning Herald – ‘Ideally people will come out and overthrow the regime. But it’s complicated’

We see so much news about the war in the Middle East that it is easy to overlook what is not being described in the daily coverage of Iran. And that makes Shiva Mahbobi angry, because she is worried about the cruelty of the Iranian leaders – and what they might do next in their desperation to retain power.

“People are getting arrested every single day,” she says. “They still get executed, and if normal people dare to come on the street to protest, they will be shot dead.” In all the coverage of the war, she says, the media is overlooking the repression by the regime. “That makes me angry. It’s a completely distorted image of what’s going on in Iran.”

We are speaking in London, a long way from the missiles, but Mahbobi is part of an Iranian community that is enmeshed in the war. Like others in the diaspora, she hopes for messages or phone calls from family and friends inside Iran who can tell her what’s happening. And, like others, she wants this conflict to weaken the regime.

This may be a challenging view for those who totally oppose the airstrikes, but this is a war about Iran – and it makes sense to listen to Iranian voices.

Mahbobi was first arrested at the age of 12 for protesting against the closure of her school in Kurdistan, where she was raised. She was arrested again at the age of 16 and spent three years in prison, where she was tortured. She fled Iran and now lives in London, where she is the spokeswoman for the Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran.

“As a woman, you know, everything is against you in that regime,” she says. “You are a criminal. You have committed an offence by being a woman in Iran.”

I’m speaking to her after making contact with a range of Iranians in London to hear their views on the war. I’ve spoken to some who believe the US and Israeli attacks will bring only death and chaos. I’ve found more, however, who want to see the end of the Islamic Republic after 47 years of dictatorship. When I went to the public protests on each side of the argument in London on February 28, I found the numbers were emphatically bigger at the march in favour of the war.

While some of the TV coverage from Iran shows people gathering to support the government, Mahbobi says nobody can rely on this footage. After all, hundreds of thousands of protesters marched against the regime in January. At least 6842 were killed by police and other authorities, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. Mahbobi believes the death toll was more than 30,000. Right now, she says, nobody can assemble in the street to say what they really think.

“There is a regime operating inside Iran with fear: attacking people, arresting people, executing people, even at the time of the war,” she says. “I would say 99.9 per cent of people want the regime to go. That’s especially after the January protests. With the complexity of Iran, we need to understand that the regime is not just afraid of the US or Israel. They are petrified of people overthrowing them.”

There has been no uprising, of course. US President Donald Trump seemed to think his airstrikes would galvanise a popular movement to tear down the regime, only to find the clerics and their enforcers, like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, were deeply entrenched. Mahbobi says there is not enough attention on the repression that makes this possible, such as the treatment of political prisoners: “They are left starving, without food, clean water or medication at all.”

Will there be regime change? “The public will is there,” she says. “But I don’t think regime change happens just by the attacks from Israel and the US.” While many in the Iranian diaspora see Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah, as the natural leader to replace the ayatollahs, he has spent the past 47 years in exile. There’s no consensus on how to replace the regime.

“In my view, Reza Pahlavi has no place in Iran,” says Mahbobi. “We actually have so many leaders inside the prisons – people who are able to become part of a government. To me, most of those leaders are inside Iran.” She spoke to the United Nations human rights committee in Geneva on March 16 about the need to help these leaders. She wants Western governments to expel Iranian diplomats and to list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, as Australia has done.

What worries her is not just the harm to civilians from the war, but the risk of a deal that leaves the regime in place. This is the Venezuela model, where Trump swaps leaders and claims victory. “I believe that if any part of the regime is left, they’re going to take such a revenge on people that the situation would be worse.”

This is why she is wary of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even though she wants to see the Islamic Republic under attack. She worries that when the US and Israeli leaders feel their interests have been met, they may be willing to accept a repressive leader in Tehran.

“Ideally, people will come out on the street and overthrow the regime,” she says. “But it is complicated, because when there is a bombing going on, that’s not possible.” It is easy for foreign leaders to call for an uprising, of course. The fact is that some Iranians will pay with their lives if they protest.

I did not expect any easy answers when I got in touch with Mahbobi, and I did not get any. But this is a war where almost all the talking is done outside the country at the heart of the conflict – and, for me, that makes it even more important to hear from the people of Iran. Even if they have to live a long way from home.

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Yahoo – Iran warns US against ground offensive as troops amass in region

Iran on Sunday warned the United States against launching a ground offensive as Washington sends growing numbers of troops to the region and after reports of a planned invasion.

“Do not doubt for a moment the resolve of our soldiers,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf said, according to the state news agency IRNA.

Iran is certain that it can punish the US and make it repent so that it will no longer dare to attack the country, he said, adding that they are in the midst of a “major world war.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned Washington of the consequences of a possible ground offensive for US troops.

“[US President Donald] Trump would, with such an action, throw US troops to the sharks in the Persian Gulf,” the IRGC said in comments to state broadcaster IRIB.

The elite forces described Trump as a “dishonest person lacking mental stability” and said he was directly responsible for the current crisis and the resulting damage.

Ghalibaf also expressed scepticism about attempts at mediation, saying the US may have signalled a willingness to negotiate, but was secretly planning a ground offensive.

The US military said on Saturday that additional sailors and marines had arrived in the Middle East aboard the USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship.

The forces joined thousands of US marines already deployed to the Middle East as part of a massive military build-up ahead of the Iran war, which began with US-Israeli attacks on the country on February 28.

On Sunday, US media then reported that the US military has drawn up plans for a possible ground operation in Iran.

The potential ground offensive would involve combined operations by regular infantry and special forces, but is not intended to be a full-scale invasion, the Washington Post reported, citing US officials. The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of such an operation, according to the newspaper.

A ground operation would mark an escalation into a dangerous new phase of the conflict, as US soldiers on the ground would be exposed to considerably greater dangers than before, such as fire from Iranian drones and missiles, combat and improvised explosive devices, the report said.

It was unclear whether US President Donald Trump will approve the plans.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that up to 10,000 additional US troops who may be deployed to the Gulf region are likely to be infantrymen.

The Washington Post sources, who spoke anonymously about the highly sensitive military plans, said preparations for a possible ground offensive have been ongoing for weeks.

Axios also reported recently on military plans that envisage the deployment of ground troops, alongside bombing raids, for a “final strike” to end the war on Iran.

The reports came as the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey travelled to Pakistan for a planned two days of talks on Sunday and Monday on de-escalating the war.

Pakistan, which shares an around 900-kilometre-long border with Iran, has offered to act as a mediator for negotiations to end the conflict.

Pakistan’s foreign minister said on Saturday that Iran had agreed to allow additional Pakistani-flagged vessels to pass through the vital Strait of Hormuz, in what observers saw as a confidence-building measure within the framework of mediation efforts.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Friday that preparations were under way for a direct meeting between representatives of the US and Iran, which could take place “fairly soon at short notice in Pakistan.”

Fighting continued in the region on Sunday as the Israeli military reported attacks on Tehran and other targets.

Iran’s Fars news agency, which is linked to the IRGC, reported missiles striking a residential area to the south of Tehran. Ten people died in the attack, including six Afghan migrants, Fars said.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported on Saturday that the attacks on Iran over recent days had been the heaviest since the current war began on February 28. It said 74% of the attacks had targeted the Tehran region.

The organization put the death toll thus far at 3,400, including at least 1,500 civilians.

Iranian forces also continued attacks on Israel, where air raid sirens were heard in cities in the south. Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service said there were no reports of injuries. Iranian media confirmed the attacks.

Israeli media reported that the attacks had targeted Dimona in the Negev desert, where Israel’s nuclear reactor is located.

The United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states continue to face Iranian attacks – launched in retaliation for the US-Israeli offensive.

The UAE’s Defence Ministry reported that the country’s air defences had intercepted 16 missiles and 42 drones on Sunday.

The country has repelled Iranian attacks involving more than 410 missiles, 1,900 drones and 15 cruise missiles since the war began four weeks ago, it said. So far, 11 people have been killed, including two soldiers, and around 180 others injured.

The armed forces in the small Gulf state of Bahrain reported that 170 missiles and 390 drones have been intercepted there to date.

In Bahrain, as in Kuwait, warning sirens sounded again on Sunday due to ongoing attacks.

An attack on an army base injured 10 soldiers in Kuwait. The military reported 14 “hostile” missiles and 12 drones in Kuwaiti airspace within 24 hours.

Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said Sunday that 10 drones had been intercepted and destroyed during the night and early hours of the morning.

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The Hill – Pope Leo: God ‘does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war’

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday said that God “does not listen to the prayers” of individuals who start wars, as the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran continues.

“Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” the first American pope, citing a Bible passage, told congregants in St. Peter’s Square, according to The Associated Press.

“He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them,” he added.

The pontiff’s remarks came on Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week that culminates in Easter. It is also not the first time he has criticized the war in Iran, which began on Feb. 28.

On March 1, the day after the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran, he wrote on the social platform X, “Stability and peace are not achieved through mutual threats, nor through the use of weapons, which sow destruction, suffering, and death, but only through reasonable, sincere, and responsible dialogue.”

Since the conflict began, at least 1,551 civilians in Iran, including at least 236 children, have been killed as of Saturday, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). At least 1,208 Iranian military personnel and 702 “unclassified” individuals have also been killed, HRANA added.

Seven U.S. service members have also been killed by Iranian retaliation, while six troops died when a refueling aircraft crashed over Iraq on March 12. The Lebanese Health Ministry also said Friday that Israeli attacks have killed 1,142 people, while civilians in Israel, Iraq and Kuwait have also been killed in the fighting.

Also on Sunday morning, the Pope expressed solidarity with Christians in the Middle East, as Iran’s retaliation after the initial wave of U.S.-Israeli strikes engulfed the region in war. There are more than 12.9 million Christians in the Middle East as of 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.

“At the beginning of Holy Week, our prayers are more than ever with the Christians of the #MiddleEast, who are suffering the consequences of a brutal conflict and, in many cases, are unable to observe fully the liturgies of these holy days,” the pontiff wrote on X. “Just as the Church contemplates the mystery of the Lord’s Passion, we cannot forget those who today are truly sharing in his suffering.

“Their ordeal challenges all our consciences. Let us raise our prayer to the Prince of Peace that he may sustain the peoples wounded by war and open concrete paths to reconciliation and #peace. #PrayTogether”

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The Washington Post – Nearly 1,500 Iranian civilians killed in U.S., Israeli strikes, report says

Nearly 1,500 Iranian civilians have been killed in dozens of U.S. and Israeli strikes that have hit schools, hospitals and other nonmilitary infrastructure since the Iran war began last month, a consortium of human rights groups alleged in a report issued Friday.

Researchers recorded 1,443 civilian fatalities — at least 217 of them children — from the start of hostilities on Feb. 28 through Monday, according to the report, which described the figures as “verified minimums” expected to rise as assessments — and airstrikes — continue. The findings, which appear to be the most comprehensive estimates yet of the war’s growing civilian toll, do not specify whether U.S. or Israeli forces are suspected to have conducted each of the individual strikes cited.

The report is certain to anger opponents of President Donald Trump’s decision to start the conflict alongside Israel and heighten scrutiny of the administration’s actions to de-emphasize the protection of civilians in military campaigns. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has publicly denounced what he says are the overly restrictive rules of engagement that guided recent U.S. wars, and the Pentagon under his leadership sought to dismantle a congressionally mandated office focused on mitigating civilian harm.

Critics have accused Israel, too, of disregarding international laws intended to safeguard civilians in war zones, notably in Gaza and Lebanon where tens of thousands have been reported killed amid its campaign to destroy adversaries supported by Iran.

“Children are being killed at school. Men are dying at checkpoints as they try to move their families … Women are being killed while waiting in line for bread. Medics are being killed while responding to emergencies,” Skylar Thompson, deputy director of Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA), which co-authored the report, told The Washington Post. “These patterns of harm raise serious legal concerns regarding the conduct of hostilities and demand accountability.”

The report concluded that major factors contributing to the loss of civilian life have included “targeting errors and misidentification” linked to old or flawed intelligence, the use of explosives in dense urban areas and focused attacks on infrastructure that could serve both civilian and military needs, including transportation and energy systems.

Attacking civilian infrastructure is a violation of the laws of armed conflict, human rights experts have said. Trump in recent days has threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s electrical plants in a bid to gain leverage over Tehran as he demands that the Strait of Hormuz be reopened. The waterway’s closure has throttled global oil markets and caused gas prices to rise sharply, including in the United States.

The report states that public statements by U.S. officials show that the United States has not adhered to legal requirements to minimize civilian harm.

The report also cites what it says are the contradictory warnings to Iranian civilians issued by the U.S. and Israel. As hostilities began, Trump and the U.S. military instructed civilians to shelter at home. Israel urged people near military sites to evacuate. And both governments communicated many of their warnings via social media, a significant complication, the report notes, as most Iranians have had little to no internet access amid the conflict.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations throughout the Middle East, declined to address questions about the report’s findings. In a brief statement, Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, Centcom’s spokesman, said that “U.S. forces do not target civilians, unlike the Iranian regime which has indiscriminately targeted and attacked innocent people in neighboring countries more than 300 times” since the conflict began.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a statement in response to the report that says the goal of its campaign is “to put an end to the existential threat posed by the Iranian regime to the State of Israel.” The IDF, it says, directs its strikes “exclusively against lawful military objectives in accordance with the Laws of Armed Conflict, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions during strikes.”

As The Post reported this month, flawed targeting probably played a role in a strike that hit a girls’ school in southern Iran. The building is adjacent to an Iranian military facility but in the last several years was walled off from the base, a development that may have been missed by military analysts responsible for studying changes at potential strike locations, according to people familiar with the issue.

At least 168 children were killed — and 110 civilians were injured — in the strike, according to the report, which Thompson says combined publicly available data and witness accounts to verify the death toll.

The Pentagon ordered a formal investigation of the school strike after an initial review, officials said, a tacit acknowledgment that the attack was carried out by U.S. forces and that civilian harm allegations appear to be credible. To date, U.S. officials have not explicitly accepted responsibility for the attack. If the investigation’s findings do affirm that U.S. forces were at fault, the incident would represent the largest confirmed civilian death toll from any single U.S. attack since 1991.

The report found that at least 43 other Iranian schools had been damaged in attacks since the conflict began.

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La Voce di New York – Iran Attacks a US Base in Saudi Arabia: 12 Troops Injured

Iranian forces struck the US military base Prince Sultan in Saudi Arabia, injuring twelve American soldiers, two of them seriously, and also damaging at least two KC-135 refueling aircraft.

The raid, carried out using missiles and drones, represents one of the most serious breaches of U.S. air defenses during the war in the Middle East, which began exactly one month ago.

The attack comes as President Trump continues to waver between promises of peace and an escalation of targeted strikes against Tehran’s critical infrastructure.

The president said that talks with the other side are ongoing and progressing well, despite the deployment of additional warships and thousands of troops to support U.S. forces. On Thursday, Trump extended by ten days, until April 6, the suspension of threats to strike Iranian energy infrastructure, after Tehran rejected a 15-point US proposal to end hostilities.

At the same time, despite the president’s statements, Iranian officials reiterated that no discussions with the United States have taken place.

During the war, Iran has bombed US bases across the Middle East, using a vast arsenal of ballistic missiles and drones.

The bombardments have severely damaged military facilities and forced the US Central Command to relocate thousands of troops to move them away from the line of fire.

According to Central Command, nearly 300 American service members have been injured since the start of the war, about 225 of whom suffered traumatic brain injuries caused by explosions. Almost all of them have since returned to duty. Thirteen US fatalities have been recorded since the beginning of the conflict.

The vast majority of the dead and injured reported so far has been in Iran, which has been subjected to relentless attacks by U.S. and Israeli forces, and in Lebanon.

Human Rights Activists News Agency reported that more than 1,492 civilians have been killed in Iran, out of a total of over 3,300 victims. In Lebanon, the Ministry of Health said Thursday that more than 1,110 people have died. More than 50 people have been killed in Gulf countries, and at least 16 in Iranian attacks against Israel.

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