Iran International
A new video showing two massive blasts near Tehran's Tajrish square has delivered a vivid illustration of the civilian toll a 12-day Israeli war wrought on Iran.
The video shows two powerful blasts roughly a second apart just steps away from the main hospital in the Tajrish area, near the capital's bustling Qods Square.
One hits a building, sending a huge cloud of smoke up on the other side of the street, and another lands between cars at an intersection.
The second blast hurls the vehicles and a huge plume of smoke high into the air.
At the time of the explosions, around 15:30 local time on June 15, the street was busy with vendors, shoppers, metro passengers and traffic as many had still not left the capital for safer places.
Other videos of the incident posted earlier on social media showed extensive flooding caused by damage to a major water pipeline from the second blast, adding to the chaos. A three-year-old child reportedly drowned in the flood.
The 12-second footage, released on social media on Thursday, appears to be from a traffic surveillance camera.
The footage emphasized the harm endured by Iranian civilians apart from Israeli strikes which assassinated commanders and nuclear scientists and pummeled key military and nuclear facilities until a June 24 ceasefire.
Iran's health ministry reported 610 people were killed in the conflict and 4,746 injured.
Independent tallies put the toll higher—1,190 according to the US-based human rights group HRANA, which reported military deaths just above 400, with the rest either civilians or yet to be determined.
Verified
Some activists and social media users allege that the video was digitally manipulated or AI-generated.
However, Factnameh, an Iranian fact-checking website, and BBC both deemed the footage genuine, comparing it with other images from the area of the impact.
Victims
Iran reported 18 people killed, including a pregnant woman and her child, and 46 injured in the strike but has not released a full list of victims.
The Israeli military reported the killing of Brigadier General Mohammad Kazemi, chief of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, his deputy Brigadier General Hassan Mohaqeq, and military intelligence officer Mohsen Bagheri on the same day.
Iran confirmed their deaths but neither side has disclosed the exact location of their deaths.
Other incidents with high civilian casualties
On June 23, Israel launched several missiles at Tehran’s Evin Prison, calling the site a “tool of repression.”
Among the dead were two prison officials, Ruhollah Tavasoli and Vahid Heydarpour, as well as Evin's top prosecutor Ali Ghanaatkar. Dozens of detainees, medical staff, visiting families — including a young child — and even a bystander were also killed.
Another Israeli attack on June 24 in Astaneh Ashrafieh in northern Iran killed 16 people, most of them from the same extended family, and completely destroyed several homes.
The bombing targeted nuclear scientist Mohammad-Reza Sadighi, who had survived an earlier Israeli attack in Tehran but lost his 17-year-old son Hamidreza in the airstrike.
