For many Iranians living under relentless Israeli and American airstrikes, each day brings a new level of anger and fear.
In interviews, text messages and social media posts, Iranians in Tehran, the capital, and Rasht, a coastal city along the Caspian Sea shores in the north, among other places, say the attacks are gaining intensity, becoming louder and getting closer. Day and night, with minimal intervals, explosions rock the ground and send massive plumes of smoke and fire toward the sky. The Iranians asked that their last names not be published out of fear of retribution.
“I grabbed my son and ran to the stairway,” said Elham, a 38-year-old resident of Tehran in a telephone interview shortly after an attack in her neighborhood in the western part of the city. “He was crying. We heard a loud whistling noise then a large explosion and our building shook violently. It was too close.”
Ferial, 62-year-old retired government employee, said in a text message that she did not sleep on Wednesday night because three airstrikes landed in and near her home in a leafy, upscale residential neighborhood of North Tehran. “I immediately thought, ‘who did they assassinate?’ Because this was louder than anything I had heard,” she said. “They are going after someone, but thousands of civilians live around them.”
In the last few days, Israel has killed more of Iran’s leadership in government and the military, including Ali Larijani, the head of the Supreme National Security Council and a de facto leader, and Brig. Gen. Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s powerful Basij militia, on Tuesday, and Esmaeil Khatib, the Iranian intelligence minister, in an overnight strike on Wednesday.
But these targeted assassinations, as well as strikes on police stations, are often happening in densely packed residential neighborhoods with high-rise apartment buildings. The airstrikes do not just hit the targeted buildings, but they cause significant damage to residential units in the area. Iran’s Red Crescent Society said at least 47,000 residential units around the country have been destroyed.
By the afternoon on Wednesday, Iranians were hearing about airstrikes that had damaged a number of facilities connected to the offshore South Pars gas field. It appeared to be one of the most significant energy sites to be hit since the U.S.-Israeli air war against Iran began nearly three weeks ago.
Nearly all of Iran’s 90 million population rely on gas for heat, hot water and cooking as a result of the government’s ambitious plan to connect every town and village to the national gas pipelines.
“They are destroying our country and our infrastructure,” said Amir Ali, 43, a businessman in Tehran. “Soon we will be like Gaza. We won’t have electricity, or heat or food,” He said that if some Iranians had thought that the war might free them of the Islamic republic’s rule, that hope was fading as people confronted apartment buildings being leveled, cultural sites being damaged, banking transactions not being completed and now crucial infrastructure being destroyed.
In Rasht, Amir, a local business owner said that the city was attacked for the first time on Wednesday.
“Many people escaped to our city from Tehran thinking it was safe here, but no place is really safe,” said Amir. “War is everywhere.”
Farnaz Fassihi is the United Nations bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the organization. She also covers Iran and has written about conflict in the Middle East for 15 years.
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