Eyewitness Accounts Describe Conditions in Tehran Following Military Strikes

On the evening of February 28, 2026, residents of Tehran looked up to see streaks of light cutting across the sky. Within hours, the capital of a nation of 90 million people was transformed into a warzone. Six weeks later, as a fragile two-week ceasefire mediated by Pakistan took hold on April 8 [1], the city's inhabitants are contending with destroyed infrastructure, a pervasive security apparatus, and reports that the Iranian regime is positioning civilians near military assets to deter further strikes.

This investigation draws on eyewitness testimony, casualty data, legal analysis, and expert projections to reconstruct conditions inside Tehran and assess the war's trajectory.

The Opening Salvo and Its Toll

The joint U.S.-Israeli operation began on February 28 with strikes targeting military installations, government buildings, and senior leadership — including a decapitation strike that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and multiple high-ranking officials [2]. The IRGC's Malek-Ashtar building in Tehran was leveled. Video footage from Iran International showed the structure completely destroyed [2].

Within the first 24 hours, strikes hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in Minab, southern Iran. According to investigations by Al Jazeera and Amnesty International, a U.S.-manufactured Tomahawk missile killed at least 170 people at the school, most of them girls between the ages of 7 and 12 [3]. The U.S. has not publicly addressed this specific incident in detail. The strike became a focal point for international legal scrutiny and was cited by over 100 international law professors who signed an open letter warning that U.S. strikes on Iran may constitute war crimes [4].

As of April 7 — day 39 of the conflict — Iran's Health Ministry reported 2,076 people killed and 26,500 injured, including at least 240 women and 212 children among the dead, and over 4,000 women and 1,621 children among the wounded [5]. The Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has offered higher figures, reporting over 1,600 civilian deaths by late March alone [6]. Approximately 3.2 million Iranians have been internally displaced, with 100,000 fleeing Tehran specifically [6]. Cross-border flows remain limited but growing: roughly 30,000 Iranians have crossed into Afghanistan and over 68,000 have arrived in Turkey [6].

Source: Al Jazeera / Iran Health Ministry

Data as of Apr 7, 2026CSV

The conflict has not been confined to Iran. Lebanon has recorded 1,497 dead and over 1 million displaced after Israel expanded operations there. Iraq has seen 109 killed, mostly paramilitary fighters. Gulf states have recorded dozens of casualties from Iranian retaliatory strikes [5].

Source: Al Jazeera Casualty Tracker

Data as of Apr 7, 2026CSV

What Was Struck: Targeting Patterns in Tehran and Beyond

The pattern of strikes extends well beyond conventional military targets. In addition to IRGC facilities and missile sites, the following civilian and dual-use infrastructure has been hit [3][7]:

• Energy: The Aghdasieh oil warehouse in Tehran (at least four killed, March 8); the South Pars gas field (March 18); oil depots on Tehran's outskirts that produced toxic black rain across the city [7]
• Transportation: Eight rail bridge segments severed across Tehran, Karaj, Tabriz, Kashan, and Qom, cutting key supply lines between the capital and cities to the south [8]
• Water: A freshwater desalination plant on Qeshm Island, disrupting water supply to 30 villages [3]
• Education: Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran (March 28); Isfahan University hit twice since the war began [3]
• B1 Bridge, Alborz Province: Struck on April 2 to disrupt missile transfers, killing 8 and wounding 95 civilians who had gathered to celebrate "Nature Day" [8]

At least 120 historical sites have sustained damage from strikes as of late March [2].

Human Rights Watch has stated that international humanitarian law requires all parties to "distinguish at all times between combatants and civilians" and that attacks cannot cause harm "excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated" [9]. The legal analysis group Opinio Juris has questioned whether the school strike specifically constitutes a war crime under the proportionality and distinction principles of the Geneva Conventions [10].

Infrastructure Collapse: Power, Water, and Hospitals

Tehran entered the war with infrastructure already under strain. Iran was approaching what experts described as "water bankruptcy" after five consecutive years of drought, and the capital nearly ran out of water in 2025 [11]. The war has compounded these vulnerabilities.

Strikes on fuel depots near Tehran caused what witnesses described as a "river of fire" flowing through surrounding streets. The city was subsequently engulfed in thick black smoke, and toxic acidic black rain fell on residential areas [2]. Thousands of people reported breathing difficulties, skin irritation, and eye problems [7]. The UN Environmental Programme has warned that pollutants from oil facility strikes are contaminating soil, water, and food crops [6].

Power infrastructure has been a central target. President Trump threatened on April 5 to bomb Iran's remaining power plants if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened [12]. The Center for Human Rights in Iran warned that power grid destruction would disable hospitals, disrupt water treatment and sanitation systems, and collapse food supply chains [13]. Iranian authorities advised residents to stay indoors, wear masks outdoors, and conserve food and fuel [2].

The cascading effects are measurable: once power systems fail, water pumping falters, chlorination becomes erratic, sewage treatment degrades, and hospitals lose sterile water access [11]. For a metropolitan area of roughly 9 million people, these failures compound rapidly. The full extent of capacity degradation remains difficult to independently verify due to restricted media access, but the pattern of targeting suggests sustained pressure on systems that were already operating near capacity limits.

The Checkpoint Regime and Human Shield Allegations

CNN correspondent Frederik Pleitgen, driving toward Tehran in early March, encountered significantly more checkpoints than normal, manned by armed personnel, though he noted shops remained open and fuel was available without long lines [14]. A 49-year-old fashion designer inside Tehran offered a different picture: "I do not leave the house nearly at all and I know most people, especially women, are like this." She described Basij paramilitaries — a volunteer militia under the IRGC — stationed throughout her neighborhood, with "multiple teenage kids with guns in my alley" [14].

The human shield issue has drawn particular attention. Iranian authorities have publicly called on children, teenagers, and civilians to gather around power plants and other sensitive infrastructure sites [15]. IRGC Commander Hossein Yekta addressed parents directly: "Send the children to the checkpoints so they can become men" [15]. The diaspora-based Dadban volunteer lawyers group warned that "encouraging civilians to gather near security centers or checkpoints that may become targets effectively turns them into human shields" [15].

Reports indicate the regime has gone further: with many IRGC bases destroyed, security forces have relocated into schools, universities, and hospitals to deter strikes [15]. Political prisoners and dual nationals have reportedly been positioned near sensitive sites as part of deterrence efforts [15].

Under international humanitarian law, the deliberate use of civilians to shield military objectives is a war crime under Article 28 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. However, HRW has also emphasized that the presence of military assets near civilians "does not relieve the attacking party of its obligation to take into account the risk to civilians" [9]. Both sides, in other words, bear legal obligations.

Fox News reported that Amnesty International identified the IRGC's recruitment of children — some as young as 12 — into front-line roles as a war crime [16].

Who Suffers Most: Selective Enforcement and Minority Crackdowns

The security apparatus has not affected all Iranians equally. Since June 2025, Iranian authorities have arrested over 21,000 people, including dissidents, journalists, human rights activists, and members of Kurdish, Balochi, Azerbaijani Turk, Ahwazi Arab, Baha'i, and Jewish communities [17]. The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran documented "entrenched patterns of state repression — including lethal force against protesters, mass arrests, executions, persecution of women and minorities, and widespread due process violations" [18].

The New Lines Institute documented a specific pattern: after the 12-Day War with Israel in June 2025, it was Kurdish demonstrators who faced the most severe crackdowns, even though protests had originated with Tehran's merchant class [19]. Ethnic minorities — including Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis, Kurds, and Turkmen — have faced what Human Rights Watch described as "widespread and entrenched discrimination," with authorities routinely invoking claims of "terrorism" and "extremism" to justify executions, arbitrary detentions, and the use of live ammunition against protesters [20].

Women have been disproportionately confined. The Tehran fashion designer's account — that most women no longer leave their homes — aligns with broader reporting that the checkpoint and militia presence has a particular chilling effect on women's mobility [14].

The Case For and Against the Strikes

The Justification

Proponents of the strikes — including the U.S. and Israeli governments and legal scholars supportive of the operation — have advanced three principal arguments [21]:

1. Ongoing armed conflict: The U.S. was already in a state of armed conflict with Iran, given decades of hostile acts including the 1979 embassy seizure, over 600 U.S. service member deaths from Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, and 170+ attacks on U.S. forces between 2023 and 2024. Under this theory, no fresh imminence assessment was required for each individual strike.

2. Nuclear imminence: Iran possessed 970 pounds of 60% enriched uranium — weeks from weapons-grade material — and had a documented history of secret nuclear weapons research. A narrow window existed before Iran acquired advanced air defenses from China and Russia that would have made strikes far more costly.

3. Humanitarian intervention: Iranian security forces killed an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 civilians during protest crackdowns in January 2026, constituting potential democide that, some scholars argued, justified intervention even without UN Security Council authorization — citing the Kosovo precedent described as "illegal but legitimate."

The Atlantic Council and Al Jazeera have noted that the U.S.-Israeli strategy exploited Iran's weakened state after years of sanctions, the 12-Day War, and the diminished position of Iranian proxy forces [22].

The Critique

Over 100 international law experts warned in an open letter that the strikes violate the UN Charter and may constitute war crimes [4]. Human Rights Watch documented the use of white phosphorus by Israeli forces in Lebanon and cluster munitions in populated areas — weapons whose wide-area effects cannot discriminate between civilian and combatant [9]. The school strike in Minab has been cited as a potential violation of the distinction principle [10]. The targeting of dual-use infrastructure — power plants, bridges, water systems — raises proportionality questions, since the civilian harm from degrading these systems affects millions of noncombatants [13].

UN experts have "denounce[d] aggression on Iran and Lebanon" and warned of "devastating regional escalation" [23].

Historical Precedent: Urban Warfare at This Scale

The conditions in Tehran invite comparison with other episodes of urban population control in the Middle East:

• Mosul, 2016–17: ISIS used civilians as human shields during the nine-month battle; an estimated 9,000–11,000 civilians were killed. The city of 1.5 million saw near-total displacement.
• Aleppo, 2012–16: Systematic siege, checkpoint networks, and infrastructure targeting over four years displaced an estimated 2 million people from a pre-war population of 2.3 million.
• Baghdad, 2003: The U.S. invasion established a pervasive checkpoint regime across a city of 7 million; sectarian violence and infrastructure collapse followed.

Tehran's situation differs in scale — 9 million residents — and in the dual nature of the threat, where both external strikes and internal regime actions are compressing civilian space. The 3.2 million internally displaced represents roughly 3.5% of Iran's 90 million population after just six weeks, a rate that, if sustained, would rival the displacement crises in Syria and Sudan [6].

Source: UNHCR Population Data

Data as of Dec 31, 2025CSV

Second-Order Consequences: Oil, Refugees, and Escalation

The economic shock has been immediate and global. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz on March 4 stranded oil and LNG exports, pushing Brent crude past $120 per barrel [24]. WTI crude oil reached $114.01 by early April 2026, up 86.7% year-over-year [25]. UN estimates indicate oil prices have risen approximately 45% and gas prices 55% since late February [24]. QatarEnergy declared force majeure on all exports after strikes on the Ras Laffan LNG facility wiped out roughly 17% of Qatar's export capacity [3].

Source: FRED / EIA

Data as of Apr 6, 2026CSV

The maritime blockade triggered what the UN described as a "grocery supply emergency" across Gulf Cooperation Council states, which depend on the Strait for over 80% of caloric imports; by mid-March, 70% of the region's food imports were disrupted [24].

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that Iran "cannot become another Syria," noting that even a 10% population outflow from a nation of 90 million would constitute one of the largest refugee crises since World War II [24]. The CSIS assessment projects a "persistent, lower-level conflict" rather than stable peace, with the likely pattern involving "cyberattacks, proxy violence, limited strikes, and periodic escalation" over the next 30 to 180 days [26].

The nuclear question remains unresolved. Iran's enrichment facilities have sustained physical damage, but analysts at CSIS warn that Tehran may "redouble efforts to acquire" a nuclear weapon, "believing that only a nuclear weapon can protect it" [26]. Over 250 high-ranking Iranian officials were killed in the strikes — unprecedented in scale — and Iran has "a history of plotting attacks to avenge senior figures," though U.S.-Israeli intelligence penetration may constrain such efforts [26].

China has identified an opportunity to "increase its influence and portray the United States as erratic," while the war remains "deeply unpopular in Europe" and has driven inflation increases globally [26].

The Ceasefire and What Comes Next

The two-week ceasefire announced on April 8 pauses active hostilities but resolves none of the underlying disputes [1]. Iran's Supreme National Security Council has signaled the ceasefire could be extended if negotiations progress [1]. The core sticking points remain: Iran's enrichment program (Iran claims the U.S. accepted its enrichment rights; the U.S. denies this), ballistic missile capabilities, and support for proxy groups [26].

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has stated that Iran's enriched uranium "would be removed from Iran whether through negotiations or by force" and that Israel's campaign in Lebanon is not covered by the truce [1]. This creates a persistent escalation risk even as the ceasefire holds.

For the residents of Tehran — the woman who no longer leaves her home, the families who fled to rural areas, the workers navigating checkpoints manned by armed teenagers — the ceasefire offers temporary relief but no certainty. The infrastructure damage will take years to repair. The displaced may not return for months. And the question of whether this pause becomes a lasting peace or merely a prelude to the next round of strikes remains, as CSIS put it, a conflict "whose underlying drivers remain not only intact but, in some cases, intensified" [26].