Shock, fear in Tehran after Israel bombs residential, military areas | Conflict News Clutch Fire

Tehran, Iran – Roya, a 62-year-old resident of Iran’s capital, was jolted awake just after 3am on Friday morning by the sound of explosions in her Marzdaran neighbourhood in western Tehran.

“It was absolutely terrifying, my heart was beating out of my chest,” she recalled. “I saw smoke on the horizon and at first thought all the strikes were farther away, but when the images came out, I found that a home just a few streets from us was hit too,” she told Al Jazeera.

Across Tehran, residents on Friday were grappling with the shock of the first air strikes on heavily populated residential areas across the city since the eight-year Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s.

The building close to Roya’s house – she requested that only her first name be used – was among many residential units targeted by Israeli warplanes during at least five rounds of air strikes that lasted several hours.

At least six nuclear scientists and physicists, including a former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, were assassinated in the attacks. Several of the country’s top military commanders were killed as well, including the armed forces chief-of-staff Mohammad Bagheri, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander-in-chief Hossein Salami, and IRGC aerospace force chief Ali Akbar Hajizadeh.

Ali Shamkhani, a former security chief and a top adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also died after his home in northern Tehran was bombed.

Some family members of the officials and scientists were killed alongside them.

Khamenei and other top officials have promised to take revenge and blamed Israel and the United States for significantly escalating tensions and risking all-out war.

Iran’s diplomats and nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami also blasted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its much-criticised chief Rafael Grossi, for refusing to forcefully condemn repeated Israeli and US threats of air strikes, or the overnight attacks on Friday. They said the global nuclear watchdog, which passed its strongest censure resolution against Iran in nearly two decades on Thursday, has become a “tool” for pressure by Israel and its Western allies. Grossi on Friday said the IAEA was opposed to any attacks on nuclear facilities.

Iran’s main nuclear facilities at Isfahan’s Natanz were also extensively bombed by Israeli warplanes, with deputy nuclear chief Behrouz Kamalvandi telling state television that the aim was to penetrate the uranium enrichment sites buried deep underground.

The extent of the damage to Natanz remains unclear, but Tehran said there was no indication of pollution caused by nuclear materials in the area. The Israeli army also attacked a number of military sites and civilian infrastructure like power plants, in several provinces across the country.

Almost immediately after the strikes, people formed long queues at nearly all petrol stations across Iran, fearing shortages. Iranian officials said there was no disruption to fuel supplies and the country’s oil facilities were not damaged.

The Information and Communications Technology Ministry announced “temporary internet restrictions” were imposed in the aftermath of the devastating attacks. The Ministry of Culture said all art events and music concerts were cancelled until further notice as a result of the “criminal and terrorist” strikes.

Some Tehran residents even left the city temporarily since Israel has signalled it wants to launch even more so-called “preemptive” attacks on Iranian soil in a self-proclaimed bid to “defend” itself.

With residential areas heavily bombed and some buildings catching fire, authorities said a number of civilians, including children, were among those brutally killed.

“She was no military personnel, nuclear figure, or an official. She was just a girl who loved cycling and nature. She was my friend, her name was Najmeh,” tweeted journalist Fatemeh Kalantari, with a photo of her friend who was killed by Israel.

State-backed demonstrations sprang up in Tehran and across the country to condemn the deadly strikes.

The attacks came on the eve of Eid al-Ghadir, a significant religious event for Shia Muslims, during which Iranian authorities organise large-scale celebrations in Tehran and other major cities.

Authorities said the events planned for Friday would be shortened, and some will be turned into protests against the latest killings by Israel, which has also massacred at least 55,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and thousands of others across the region since October 7, 2023.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump acknowledged that he was aware the strikes were taking place, but said Washington provided no military backing. He urged Tehran to come back to the negotiating table and make concessions.

The attacks came just two days before Iran and the US were slated to hold a sixth round of nuclear negotiations in Muscat with mediation by Oman. Those talks have now been cancelled.

Trump, who initially emphasised repeatedly that his only demand in the negotiations was for Iran not to have nuclear bombs, has hardened his position in recent weeks to demand zero uranium enrichment taking place on Iranian soil. Iran has emphatically denied this condition, arguing that enrichment at low levels for civilian use such as power generation is an inalienable national right for which Iran has made sacrifices – including the past assassinations of its nuclear scientists.

In response to the IAEA censure on Thursday, Iran said it will build its third nuclear enrichment site at a “safe” location, along with upgrading centrifuges at the Fordow enrichment site.

Iran is now enriching uranium up to 60 percent, but maintains that it seeks no military application for its nuclear programme.

The 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that Trump unilaterally torpedoed in 2018 allowed Iran to enrich up to 3.67 percent under intense monitoring by the IAEA.