Residents of Tehran say the Iranian capital has endured what they described as its worst night of aerial bombardment, as US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth followed Donald Trump’s suggestion on Monday that the war could end soon with a warning of more strikes to come.
“We are under heavy shelling and I can hear consecutive explosions. The place they attacked caught fire. It is not clear where it exploded, but the buildings are shaking,” Niloufar, who lives in eastern Tehran, said early Tuesday, speaking under a pseudonym for security reasons. “They are destroying Iran,” they added, saying there were planes flying low above.
Israel, which launched an air campaign against Iran alongside the United States on February 28, said on Tuesday it had attacked a weapons development facility amid a wave of attacks.
Other residents told The Guardian of rolling blackouts and that much of Iran’s communications were cut off.
The World Health Organization has urged Iranians to stay indoors, saying the “black rain” falling after attacks on oil facilities could cause respiratory problems.
One Tehran resident described the city as “the last stop before hell.”
At least 1,245 civilians have died, including 194 children, in the US-Israel war against Iran, according to the US-based group Human Rights Activists in Iran.
In Lebanon, at least 486 people have been killed by Israeli bombings, while 11 have died in Israel. Seven American soldiers have been confirmed dead.
As planes bombed Tehran, U.S. officials issued conflicting messages about how long the war could last.
Donald Trump said Monday that “the war is very complete,” in a call with CBS News. Hours later, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the war would end on “our schedule” and that the United States would not stop until “the enemy is completely and decisively defeated,” promising that Tuesday would see the most intense attacks on Iran yet.
“It’s not my place to say whether it’s the beginning, the middle or the end, that is (Trump’s decision) and he will continue to communicate that,” Hegseth said.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces had struck more than 5,000 sites in Iran in a campaign aimed at destroying Iran’s ballistic missile and drone capabilities, degrading its navy to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and striking “deeper into Iran’s military and industrial base.”
Meanwhile, Iranian officials said they would not accept an end to the war until they had inflicted a painful price on the United States and Israel. The head of Iran’s national security council, Ali Larijani, said in a social media post that “the nation of Iran does not fear your empty threats,” while hinting that Iran could attack Trump himself.
“Even those bigger than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation. Be careful not to be eliminated yourselves,” he wrote, responding to the US president’s threat that Iran could be hit “20 times harder” if it blocked the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump’s comments came as American consumers began to feel the pain at the pumps and investors around the world reeled from skyrocketing fuel prices. Economists said a continued disruption to Gulf oil production and shipping from the Strait of Hormuz – a choke point for a fifth of the world’s oil transit – could plunge the world into an energy crisis not seen since the 1970s.
Iran continued to attack the Gulf states and Israel on Tuesday, as part of its strategy to inflict as much pain as possible on America’s influential allies in the Gulf and the global economy to raise the price of war.
In Bahrain, a woman was killed and eight more people were injured in an Iranian attack on a residential building in Manama, while firefighters in the United Arab Emirates were trying to put out a fire near petrochemical plants after an Iranian drone attack. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait said they had intercepted drones over their territory.
In the glitzy Gulf city of Dubai, despite the bombing, residents said life was continuing as normal. People still flocked to beaches, shopping malls and rooftop bars, although many tourists had fled. Commercial flights also restarted as the country’s airspace tentatively reopened, even as UAE leaders condemned continued “flagrant Iranian aggression.”
So far, four people, all migrant workers, have been killed by falling missile debris in the United Arab Emirates.
Nader Farid, 30, who moved from Egypt to Dubai five months ago to work in real estate, said in an interview on the beach: “They say it’s a war, but it hasn’t caused us any problems, we don’t really see it at all.
“The first day was scary when they warned about incoming missiles. But now it’s been more than a week and life here goes on, just business is a little slower. I’m from Egypt, I know that no place is safe from war, but this one doesn’t make me feel bad. We are very protected here.”
In Tehran, American and Israeli aircraft operated virtually unopposed. A resident of central Tehran said: “The air was clearing a little yesterday, but last night’s attacks, which I can say were the most intense in the last 10 days, were so terrifying that our buildings shook. Glass windows were also broken even though the explosions did not occur on my street.
“Even in the last hour, I heard several explosions, and those who plan to flee today are forced to stay home. The sky is now gray and very polluted… there is a smell of burning gunpowder in the air,” they added.
The skies over Tehran have been gray for the past two days as smoke billowed from oil facilities in Tehran and the nearby province of Alborz, which Israel attacked on Saturday. Residents reported “black rain” falling from the sky.
“Black rain and the acid rain that accompanies it are really a danger for the population, mainly for the respiratory system,” said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier in Geneva. The WHO backed Iranian authorities’ advice that people stay indoors as long as air quality remains poor.
Many people have fled Tehran seeking safety in rural areas, but older and less skilled residents were unable to leave.
In Lebanon, Israel continued its attacks against what it described as Hezbollah targets, striking the southern suburbs of Beirut and the south of the country on Tuesday. Hezbollah continued to attack Israeli troops in the south of the country and launch volleys of rockets and swarms of drones into northern Israel, reportedly prompting Israel to consider a broader offensive against the group.
The Lebanese Red Cross on Monday night condemned an Israeli attack on one of its ambulances in southern Lebanon’s Tire district, which injured two emergency workers.
