After the panic of air raids, Tehran dares to imagine life without the mulllahs

The failure of the country's air defences and the scale of the Israeli military strikes have done what decades of protest could not - hurt Iran's ruling elite

- Rana Rahimpour

It was another sweltering summer Thursday in Iran. As on many weekends, young Iranians gathered in flats and restaurants, secretly sipping counterfeit vodka, playing music and trying to laugh - masking the dread and exhaustion of living under a regime they detest.

But on the morning of 13 June, at about 3am, that fragile veil of normality was torn off.

Across Tehran and several other cities, thunderous blasts ripped through the dark. Some residents thought it was a storm. Within minutes, they realised it was far more ominous. Israel had launched an unprece-dented aerial assault, striking dozens of targets across the country in the most significant attack on Iranian soil since the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.

While the Israeli military claimed it was targeting military and nuclear facilities and senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the blasts hit residential areas too.

Images and videos of damaged apartment blocks and debris-strewn streets quickly flooded social media. Panic gave way to anger. For Iranians, used to repression and crisis, this was something new: direct war - loud, close and unavoidable.

By morning, Iranian state TV confirmed the death of Maj Gen Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the IRGC. Soon after, more familiar names followed, including Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the armed forces, and Brig Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the IRGC's aerospace force.

Many of these men had been central to Iran's violent crackdowns on peaceful protesters over the years.

For many Iranians, especially the country's youth and those in exile, these men's deaths felt like longawaited justice. On social media, some posted cautiously celebratory messages.

Others remained silent, wary of arrest, as the regime swiftly warned citizens against sharing any content about the attacks online.