{"id":314138,"date":"2026-03-16T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=314138"},"modified":"2026-03-13T07:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T07:30:09","slug":"these-targeted-attacks-minab-among-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/03\/these-targeted-attacks-minab-among-them\/","title":{"rendered":"These Targeted Attacks \u2013 Minab among Them"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Iranians when they had a good time – \u00a9 Jan Oberg 2016<\/p><\/div>\n

TFF plans to publish more texts and pictures from Iran, to give you the sense of its civilisation, beauty – to put a human face on the USraeli barbarism.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe brutal truth is:
\nWe are not citizens in this story.
\nWe are not even collateral damage.
\nWe are the targets.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

9 Mar 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0I\u2019m a night owl. I usually get to work around 10 a.m. This morning, I\u2019m on the subway, just two stations away from the office, when my phone rings. It\u2019s my young colleague. For weeks, he has been obsessively following the news of a possible war, refreshing pages, scanning channels, bracing himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi Elaheh,\u201d he says. \u201cIsrael has attacked again.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time I reach the office, some colleagues are already leaving to pick up their children. Others stand, frozen, trying to decide what to do or waiting for someone to come for them. A few minutes later, the evacuation notice arrives. Our office is in the center of Tehran, in an all-glass building. Staying is not an option. Glass does not negotiate with missiles.<\/p>\n

I leave and go back to the subway. The station is overflowing with people\u2014anxious, restless\u2014trying to get somewhere, as quickly as possible, as if speed itself could offer protection. It\u2019s so crowded that I have to wait for several trains before I can squeeze in. Inside the carriage, people are talking about the attack. And then someone says, almost casually:<\/p>\n

\u201cAh, it\u2019s targeted attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh really?\u201d I say. \u201cThen, for example, the attack on Evin Prison last time was targeted too?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t know,\u201d they reply, with a smirk. \u201cIt was the judiciary\u2019s medical clinic.\u201d<\/p>\n

As if that distinction matters.<\/p>\n

As if precision cleanses violence.<\/p>\n

As if renaming a target resurrects the dead.<\/p>\n

I get home. There is no internet, only intranet. By now, this is routine. Any crisis, any tension, even the smallest sign of instability, and access is cut. The Internet here is no longer part of life; it is a privilege that can be revoked at will. What remains are state television and a handful of Iranian news outlets, most of them echoing official narratives. I avoid those as much as I can. I refuse to donate my attention to propaganda.<\/p>\n

I tell myself I won\u2019t obsess. I refresh the page once an hour.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when I read about the attack on Minab Girls\u2019 Elementary School.<\/strong> At least a dozen children are dead. My stomach drops. An hour later, the number is twenty. I check again. And again. A few hours pass, and the number is fifty-seven. I burst into tears.<\/p>\n

Fifty-seven children.<\/p>\n

Killed in minutes.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m afraid to check the news \u2013 but I can\u2019t stop. The number keeps rising. Eighty. More. And one phrase keeps circling in my head, like an insult disguised as analysis:<\/p>\n

\u201cTargeted attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

One hundred and eight targeted attacks (1).<\/p>\n

Targeted attacks that kill children in minutes.<\/p>\n

Targeted attacks that are supposed to bring peace, freedom, and democracy.<\/p>\n

Targeted attacks that will \u201crelieve us\u201d from the suffering of an authoritarian regime.<\/p>\n

Targeted attacks that cancel our projects, suspend our lives, and leave us jobless overnight.<\/p>\n

Targeted attacks that tear apart homes.<\/p>\n

Targeted attacks that target life itself.<\/p>\n

Targeted attacks that are normalised \u2013 expected \u2013 when they happen to people in this geography.<\/p>\n

Targeted attacks that are called \u201cpre-emptive strikes\u201d when carried out by Israel or the United States, but evidence of barbarism when attributed to Iranians.<\/p>\n

Targeted attacks that Western media frame as efforts to \u201cstop Iran\u2019s nuclear program\u201d or deliver a \u201cregime change\u201d that Iranians are supposedly begging for.<\/p>\n

And then I remember something else.<\/p>\n

As I leave the subway station that day, I hear a young person say out loud, while walking, with a flatness that frightens me more than anger ever could:<\/p>\n

\u201cLet them attack and kill us all. It\u2019ll be a relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Words that come from exhaustion.<\/p>\n

So yes \u2013 no matter how bitter these words sound, they reflect a brutal truth.<\/p>\n

We are not citizens in this story.<\/p>\n

We are not even collateral damage.<\/p>\n

We are the targets.<\/p>\n

Footnote<\/strong><\/p>\n

(1) The final count of schoolchildren killed in this attack reaches 165.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Elaheh Pooyandeh – Born in Arak, Iran, on April 16, 1989. Favourite quote \u201cPeace begins with a smile.\u201d Joined TFF as Associate in March 2020. (More<\/a>\u2026)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – thetransnational.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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