Sleeplessness, fear and exhaustion gripped residents of Tehran as successive waves of strikes struck the Iranian capital, judging from messages sent by people in the city after the latest overnight onslaught, which several described as the worst bombardment in six days of war.

With Iran imposing a near-total internet blackout, information emerging from inside the country is fragmentary and difficult to verify. But in a series of accounts sent through proxy connections, and calls with friends abroad, Tehranis described a night of intense explosions.
Zahra, a teacher and mother of one living in central Tehran, said the strikes, in what she said was the heaviest attack to date, had left her deeply worried for civilians who found themselves in danger not just from Iran’s attackers but from their own government.

“This is the first time since the war began that I am genuinely scared for my fellow Iranians,” said Zahra*. “We are trapped between the regime that is killing us with machine guns, and a foreign power has likely decided that we are collateral damage.”
Although she had protested against the government in January and had celebrated the killing of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in the first few seconds of the war a week ago, she has become increasingly fearful of the civilian toll.

“The initial joy of the regime’s leaders paying the price is soon turning into fear. Who will be left in free Iran if we all get killed?” Zahra said.
She described Thursday night as being unlike anything she had experienced before. “I don’t think I have ever experienced a night like this before or even seen [anything like it] in the movies. I am really scared, especially because I am in total information blackout.”