'Escalating Clashes' Lead to Bloodshed... 1,500 Dead in Iran as Civilian Casualties Mount

Estimated by Human Rights Group Hengaw

More than 200 civilians have been killed in Iran due to airstrikes by the United States and Israel.

The fireball that occurred following reports of an airstrike near the headquarters of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in Tehran, Iran, on March 1, 2026. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

On March 2 (local time), the British daily newspaper The Guardian, citing the Norway-based human rights group Hengaw, reported that the total death toll in Iran has reached at least 1,500.

According to Hengaw, this figure includes 200 civilians and 1,300 Iranian military personnel. This number is nearly three times higher than the 555 deaths officially announced by the Iranian Red Crescent Society (the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross).

The United States and Israel have carried out extensive strikes on key military and government facilities in more than 150 Iranian cities. Notably, over the past weekend, a U.S. missile struck a girls' elementary school in Minab, Hormozgan Province in southern Iran, resulting in the deaths of more than 150 people.

On the 1st of this month (local time), smoke was rising from a building in downtown Tehran due to an airstrike by the United States and Israel targeting Iran. Photo by Yonhap News

Despite the wartime situation, Iranian authorities did not evacuate residents living near military and security facilities. Instead, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence organization sent text messages to citizens in several cities, including Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan Province in the northwest, prohibiting movement on the streets. The messages defined any outdoor activity as 'direct cooperation with the enemy,' effectively confining citizens to their homes.

The UK-based media outlet IranWire also reported extensively on these repressive control measures by the authorities. In an interview with The Guardian, a student in Tehran disclosed that the internet had been cut off, stating, "Bombs are falling on the city center, but it is impossible for ordinary citizens to know the locations of IRGC bases, so the risk to the public is extremely high."

Another Kurdish student said, "If you try to evacuate, regime agents arrest you on charges of terrorism," criticizing, "They are imprisoning citizens in order to use them to denounce former U.S. President Donald Trump and others."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.