By Alireza Bahrami,
Correspondent for AsiaN
TEHRAN: The last month of winter in Iran is like Christmas. The Persian New Year begins on the first day of spring. For this reason, the last weeks of winter are filled with excitement and preparation for the New Year holidays; but this year there is no sign of this; because the war has affected human life with its violence.
Tehran has been seriously affected by airstrikes, as in the 12-day war nine months ago, but it has not yet returned to the solitude of that period; although less than 48 hours after the war began, ordinary houses were also targeted by missile attacks.
The United States and Israel are right; their armies still do not target residential buildings – except in rare cases of personality assassinations. But the problem is that they have defined new targets where the destruction of houses and the death of ordinary people have become commonplace: attacks on police stations in urban neighborhoods.
Given the serious difference between police stations and army barracks, a significant number of houses, shops and private cars are destroyed in each attack on them.
This situation has also damaged a number of hospitals and forced them to close. The scenes of newborns leaving a hospital saddened people.
But the peak of this miscalculation occurred in a small town in southern Iran. They attacked a recreation complex belonging to the IRGC military force; while part of it had been allocated to a girls’ elementary school since the previous year. More than 100 girls aged 6 to 9 were killed in this attack. The images of this attack and the preparation of the children’s graves had a lot of international repercussions.
Photo: Davoud Ghahrdar
However, life in Tehran has not stopped. Shops selling daily necessities and service centers are active. For example, shops that replace car windows are busy.
But the attacks of the past few days have also destroyed part of Tehran’s bazaar. So, there is no news of the excitement before the New Year. Because these things have lost their priority. Some of the people of Tehran have left the city and gone to other cities. This trend intensified after the attacks on homes began.
Most of those who have remained in the city prefer to stay at home. 5 days ago, after the first attack, I went to a post office near my workplace to send two parcels (books) to other cities. Now that post office (after the attack on the police headquarters opposite it two days ago) is half-destroyed. Naturally, traveling on the streets of the city has become dangerous.
One of the tourist centers of Tehran is the historical Golestan Palace near Tehran Bazaar. A historical monument registered on the UNESCO list. It was also damaged by the blast wave in the missile attack on the Iranian judiciary. I spoke to one of its officials on the phone. Their estimate is that it will be closed for 5 years for restoration, at a cost of 30 million dollars for restoration.
When the war is over, much of the infrastructure will be damaged. However, it is human lives that cannot be valued. The number of people killed in Iran in the 5 days of the war has exceeded a thousand.
No one is able to compensate for the lives of people and the damage to families.
Politicians decide to fight each other and ordinary people become victims. This is the ruthless face of war. The real face of war!
Calculations of war and human lives
In both attacks on Iran, Trump and Netanyahu counted on the support of Iranian protesters who demand fundamental change. Especially in this period. But their calculations did not turn out right. Some of the protesters have left Tehran, and it is natural that a war situation creates contractions and caution. In the city, I encountered people who considered Iranian government officials to be the cause of this situation. Another group considered the excesses of Trump and Netanyahu to be the main reason. But the third group had a wandering mind and could not distinguish what was right. All three groups were frightened by the sounds of explosions.
Evidence also shows that the attackers in Iran had planned a ground attack by separatist groups, especially from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. But the behavior of yesterday and today showed that they were not willing to replace the ground forces of the United States Army. The Trump administration has announced that it will not start a ground war under any circumstances. Perhaps these statements made the separatist groups feel uncomfortable about participating in the war.
However, the governorates and garrisons of Kurdish cities in western Iran were regularly targeted by missile attacks, and Iran also attacked the ammunition depots of Kurdish groups in Iraq.
Sentences also cost many lives in war.
