Residents in the Iranian cities of Tehran and Esfahan have described a night of “really intense” bombardment, after Israeli strikes targeted both cities and footage showed Tehran’s Mehrabad airport in flames.
“We could hear a lot of explosions all through the night,” one Tehran resident told CNN on Saturday morning. “Looks like they completely destroyed the east and west of the city.”
Iranian state media claimed Israel had struck the airport. The extent of the damage to the airport is unclear, as is whether the site was struck directly. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.
One person who lives near the airport said there was “heavy bombing” at 2 a.m. local time targeting the “aerospace industries.”
“The noise was very loud and the windows shook,” she said. “We took shelter in the hallway of the house. We’re safe. It’s just that sometimes the sound is distressing.”
She says she went back to sleep at about 4 a.m. and that “things are not too difficult” for her at the moment. If attacks worsen, she plans to travel to the north of the country. “But I’m afraid to go north and then have (strikes) start there,” she added.
Another resident of Tehran described the pattern of bombing as targeting “specific points” but aiming to “destroy (that) entire building.”
“The neighbours of that building usually suffer physical and damage and the families around it are under a lot of psychological pressure,” the 40-year-old man said. “But overall, the situation in the city is calm and good.”
The Israeli military also said it struck the city of Esfahan, where critical facilities for Iran’s nuclear program are located, overnight.
“Physically we are good. But mentally we are f****d,” a resident in Esfahan said. “On one side, you see people are dying and houses ruined. On one side, there’s a system that lives in a parallel world. They do not see what we see and consequences of actions differ from what we have in mind.”
