The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCR) said on Thursday that US-Israeli strikes have damaged more than 20,000 “civilian units” since the US and Israel launched the war against Iran on February 28.
The group, whose rescue workers are responding to strikes across the country, said that the figure includes 17,353 residential units, 4,122 commercial units, and educational facilities.
The bombing campaign has inflicted a large number of civilian casualties, as the Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, a US-based NGO that’s very critical of the Iranian government, said on Thursday night that it has confirmed the killing of 1,286 civilians, including 200 children. The group also said that it has confirmed 199 military deaths and that another 373 have yet to be classified as civilian or military.
Over the previous 24 hours, HRANA said 10 civilians, including three women, were killed, and another 91 were injured. In that time, it recorded attacks on several civilian targets, including a tourist camp, a government building, a residential unit, a residential neighborhood, and a hospital. HRANA also recorded attacks on several military sites, including bases, warehouses, and production sites.
The Financial Times reported that the heavy strikes on civilian targets have caused Iranians who initially supported the idea of regime change to rethink their position. “We weren’t supposed to be bombed,” said a Tehran resident who experienced strikes near her apartment. “Our city, our country, this wasn’t supposed to happen. How is it that Venezuela … saw clean, bloodless regime change, but not here?”
The single worst incident of civilian harm was the bombing of an elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, in the opening hours of the US-Israeli attacks. About 175 people were killed, the vast majority being schoolgirls and schoolboys. A preliminary Pentagon investigation has found that the US was responsible for the strike.
