'My daughter is under the rubble': Inside Tehran as civilian toll of strikes rises

Nawal Al-Maghafi,Senior international investigations correspondentand

Ruzgar Akgun, Ishaan Jhaveri and Emile Costard,BBC Eye

A mother stands by the rubble, crying out for her daughter.

For days she has been waiting for rescue workers to dig through the flattened remains of what was once her daughter's flat in Resalat, a residential district in eastern Tehran.

"They don't have the manpower to get her out," the woman says.

"My daughter is under the rubble... she's afraid of the dark."

For a month, Iran has been at war with the United States and Israel, who have been carrying out strikes across the country at targets linked to the regime.

But these attacks are also having a devastating impact on civilians living nearby.

They are now being caught between bombardment from the skies and a repressive regime that responded to anti-establishment protests with a deadly crackdown in January.

Since the start of the war, BBC Eye has gathered exclusive footage from independent journalists inside Tehran.

The BBC is rarely allowed into Iran and has not not been given access since the war began.

We've gathered eyewitness testimony, filmed the aftermath of strikes and analysed footage from social media and satellite imagery.

Our analysis shows there has been a series of attacks on state-linked targets that are embedded in civilian neighbourhoods in Tehran, with deadly consequences for those living around them.

Dozens of families had lived in the multi-storey apartment building in Resalat before it was destroyed by an Israeli air strike on 9 March.

The woman trapped in the rubble had been living in the complex with her husband and young daughter.

Days after the strike, she and her daughter were found dead under the rubble. The husband survived.

Another apartment building, across the road, was also destroyed in the air strike.

A man, 55, living in an apartment there, said the strike was "so sudden" and he was "thrown across the room".

He says everything he owns is now buried beneath the debris.

"I don't have anything now… All my documents, everything, it's gone."

Local authorities and residents say between 40 and 50 people were killed in this single attack.

Those made homeless are currently staying at a hotel nearby.

"This was our life," the man adds.

The Israel Defense Forces told the BBC World Service it had targeted a military building used by the Iranian Basij, a paramilitary force linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

But analysis of the aftermath suggests the impact extended far beyond that single site.

Satellite imagery taken in the days after the strike shows at least four buildings destroyed in quick succession.

While one was well known to be associated with the Basij, surrounding structures appear to have been residential.

Footage from the scene, verified by BBC Eye, shows widespread destruction across the neighbourhood. Our analysis indicates that buildings up to 65m away were heavily damaged by the blast.

Residents also describe multiple explosions within seconds of each other.

"They hit three times," one survivor says.

"Maybe three or five seconds between them… I tried to stand up, but the rubble came down on my head."

Military experts told BBC Eye that the Israeli air force is likely using particularly large bombs across Tehran from the Mark 80 series, which are often fitted with precision guidance systems.

They added that the scale and spread of the damage observed in Resalat is consistent with the use of the Mark 84, the largest of the series, weighing 2,000lb.

Unexploded bombs matching these types have been photographed in the city.

The UN has previously urged countries and armed groups at war to avoid using powerful bombs in highly populated areas because of the danger to civilian lives.

BBC Eye has spoken to two international humanitarian law experts, who believe that the use of such a heavy bomb in a densely populated area would be disproportionate, considering the potential harm to civilians, and possibly unlawful.

Resalat is not an isolated case.

Since the start of the conflict, the Israel Defense Forces said it had dropped more than 12,000 bombs across Iran and 3,600 bombs on Tehran alone.

US Central Command says it has struck more than 9,000 targets across Iran.

Many of these US and Israeli strikes have targeted police stations, Basij militia buildings, police headquarters, military and police universities, safe houses, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) homes, as well as potential ammunition stores and checkpoints.

Often, these targets are located within busy civilian neighbourhoods.

On 1 March, an Israeli strike hit the Abbasabad police station near Niloufar Square, where families had gathered after breaking their Ramadan fast.

Eyewitnesses describe seeing at least 20 people killed, though the BBC has not verified this number.

Witnesses described a "terrifying light" followed by multiple explosions.

"We ran into the street," one man said.

"A man and a woman had just come out of a shop… they were hit immediately."

Residents reported multiple strikes in quick succession on the same target.

"It wasn't even two minutes," another witness said.

"When we came back, they hit again."

The IDF confirmed it was responsible for the attack, saying it "struck a military target".

BBC Eye analysis of the blast zone suggests that, as in Resalat, the damage extended well beyond the named target.

Under international humanitarian law, all parties to a conflict must distinguish between civilian objects and military objectives.

The expected harm to civilians or civilian buildings must be proportionate to the expected military advantage gained from that particular action.

It also requires sides to avoid, as far as feasible, basing military targets within or near densely populated areas.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says that 1,464 civilians including at least 217 children have been killed in Iran in the first month of the conflict.

Residents told BBC Eye that strikes hitting residential areas risk deepening resentment, even among those who had previously been critical of the Iranian regime.

The BBC asked the IDF about the incidents in this report. It confirmed the strikes but made no further comment. The US Department of Defense did not respond.

Iran has also struck civilian infrastructure and residential buildings in nearby countries during the war, such as airports and hotels, notably in Gulf nations allied with Washington.

In Tehran, residents criticised the Iranian authorities for their response to the war.

They told the BBC there had been little visible provision of basic safety measures, including public shelters, evacuation support or temporary accommodation for those displaced.

Several people we spoke to said they had received no guidance on where to go or how to protect themselves during attacks.

"There are no sirens, no warnings," one resident said. "You just hear the explosion."

In the absence of clear communication, and amid an ongoing internet blackout, many described feeling exposed and uncertain, unsure when or where the next strike might hit.

The Iranian government has not publicly detailed any nationwide civil defence protocols in response to the attacks.

The United States and Israel say they are targeting the infrastructure of the Iranian state.

But in a city where that infrastructure sits side-by-side with homes, shops and schools, the consequences are being felt far beyond the named targets.

For those living through it, that pressure is measured in homes lost, families shattered, and a growing sense that nowhere is truly safe.