Iranians criticize the regime for lacking bomb shelters during US-Israeli strikes

FIRST ON FOX: While officials from the US-designated terrorist organization Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) rowed underground amid joint US-Israeli military strikes, ordinary Iranians criticized the clerical regime for failing to build enough bomb shelters and provide early warning systems.

Iranians have sent messages to Fox News Digital about their efforts to get information about the progress of the joint US-Israeli campaign of air war against military bases in the Islamic Republic and share the theocracy’s disdain for civilians.

“In a country that has been bragging about its military power in the world for 47 years, there are no warning bells, not to mention shelter. [enemy airplanes] they have reached the sky. They don’t even have a radar,” wrote Noori from the capital, Tehran.

HEGSETH ANNOUNCES PENTAGON PROBE INTO DEADLY STRIKE AT IRANIAN SCHOOL

To compensate for the lack of bomb shelters and safe rooms in residential buildings, Noori said Iranian authorities have designated 82 metro stations and 300 parking garages in Tehran as shelters.

“This is what they call shelter. Remember that first of all, there are no bathrooms in Metro stations, and, during the 12-day war, when people tried to go, they were closed.”

Noori said “Families living in IRGC and military quarters are now living in municipal stations out of fear.”

Noori and other Iranians affiliated with Fox News Digital are using their first names because of the risk of retaliation from the regime’s brutal security forces.

Faraz, who is from Tehran, said, “Now we are in a situation where we have no shelters, and we fear for our lives. If we were fighting someone who would attack residential buildings, so many civilians would have died. We don’t even have warning sirens.”

Lisa Daftari, an expert on Iran, told Fox News Digital, “What we see on the ground in Tehran is a city that operates without a formal social security infrastructure. Families with children or elderly relatives have mostly moved to the countryside or the Caspian coast. Those who are left are taking shelter – they are moving from windows when they hear explosions, retreating to underground buildings.”

Daftari, editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, added, “There are no bomb shelters. There are no warning sirens. The Iranian people have not been given a formal defense plan. What you see on your screens – the crowds in the streets – are not spontaneous demonstrations of support. Those are Basij soldiers on megaphones, ordering people to leave their loyal kingdom.”

The placement of military bases in the Islamic Republic of Iran in crowded areas puts the people of that country at risk, according to legal experts.

WHY GULF STATES WON’T GO TO WAR AGAINST IRAN — DESPITE ATTACKS ON THEIR LAND

This photo obtained by Iran’s ISNA news agency shows the scene of a strike at a girls’ school in Minab, in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, on Feb. 28, 2026. (Ali Najafi/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images)

The Pentagon is currently investigating an airstrike that reportedly hit an Iranian girls’ school in the city of Minab on February 28 – the start of US Operation Epic Fury against the Iranian regime. The air strike reportedly killed 175 people, most of them children, at the Shajarah Tayyebeh primary school, according to the Iranian government. The school was on the same street as the buildings used by the IRGC.

Avi Bell, a professor at the University of San Diego Law School and Bar Ilan University’s Faculty of Law, told Fox News Digital that “It is highly unlikely that populated areas would be used as drone attack sites or missile launch sites for any reason other than to protect people. For military reasons, it would make more sense for launch sites not to exist.”

TRADE HOLDERS: HOW 200 YEARS OF DISTRUST SHAPE RUSSIA’S RESPONSE TO THE IRAN PROBLEM

Noori was critical of this regime: “They brag to the whole world, but they cut off water, electricity, air and internet to their people. Any money they get from Biden and Obama and from selling oil, they use it for missiles, drones, Hamas, Hezbollah and building weapons.”

Manouchehr, also from Tehran, wrote: “I am sending you messages under very difficult conditions, with very weak internet. I had to pay the highest price for a VPN just to send you this message. The security situation is not good at all. These clerics have spent our money for years on missiles and drones, and on financing Hamas and Hezbollah, they were not even built for 7 years. They threaten the world.”

A VPN allows a small number of Iranians to avoid the complete shutdown of Iranian communications. According to Netblocks on Monday, “The blackout of the Internet in Iran enters the 17th day after 384 hours. During the last day, the decline has been followed by the infrastructure of the telecoms network that has been blocked, which further reduces the availability of VPN and sends some authorized users and NIN services offline.”

Police officers stand beside banners displaying images of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution Square, in downtown Tehran, Iran, on March 14, 2026. (Vahid Salemi/AP)

Manouchehr added, “Thank you President Trump for not bombing the settlements. Please tell them. [the U.S. Government] not to declare a ceasefire. Besides, these wolves will not leave any Iranian people alive, and they will take revenge on the Israeli and American attacks by targeting the Iranian people.”

Iranians have realized that after the eight-year war between Iraq and Iran (1980-1988) when Iraqi missiles were launched into civilian areas in Iran, the Ayatollahs could build a bomb shelter.

Lawdan Bazargan, an Iranian-American activist and human rights expert on the situation in Iran, told Fox News Digital, “The Islamic regime of Iran does not value human life and does not treat the Iranian people as citizens, but as conquered and enslaved citizens. It has spent decades building missile tunnels and drones, yet it has left 90 million people without weapons, or any civilian warnings. Over time, the internet is mostly shut down, and phone calls are restricted, leaving people unable to get news or communicate with their families.”

US WARNS IRAQ TO STOP IRAN-BACKED MILITIA ATTACKS ON AMERICAN PROPERTY

Iranian women collect war money outside a shelter in Tehran, during the Iran-Iraq War, 11th May 1988. (Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)

He continued, “What makes this even more shocking is that during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, when I lived in Iran, there were at least some warning devices. People had a few minutes to get away from the windows or find protection. Today, even that basic level of safety is gone.”

The Iranian regime imprisoned Bazargan in its notorious Evin prison in Tehran for his political dissident activities in the 1980s.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on March 8 that it issued a “security warning to the people of Iran … as the terrorist regime of Iran disregards the safety of innocent people.”

A group of men inspect the ruins of a police station during a US-Israeli military operation in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (Vahid Salemi/AP)

According to a statement by CENTCOM, “The regime of Iran is using populated areas to carry out military operations, including launching drones and ballistic missiles. This dangerous decision puts the lives of all Iranians at risk as areas used for military purposes lose their protected status and become legitimate military targets under international law. Shiraz will launch drones and ballistic missiles.”

Hossein, who lives in Tehran, said, “Home phones are also under strict security control. There are no warning systems or warnings at all, and if an accident happens, people have no shelter because, overall, the lives of Iranians are of no value to this government.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS PROGRAM

Ahmadreza Radan, Iran’s police chief, said more than 80 people had been arrested for spreading “disturbing” online and that police were “ready to pull the trigger” in the event of protests.

A spokesman for Iran’s UN mission declined to comment for this article.