Tehran — Iran’s capital is almost unrecognisable after a relentless 48‑hour bombardment by US and Israeli forces turned whole districts into smoking ruins, in a campaign commanders claim is aimed at “breaking the backbone” of the Revolutionary Guard.

From the hills of northern Tehran, residents watch columns of flame rise where office blocks, apartment towers and government complexes once stood. Bridges are twisted, highways cratered, and entire neighbourhoods lie dark and silent after power stations and communications hubs were struck in overlapping waves of cruise missiles, stealth airstrikes and drone swarms.

Hospitals are overflowing, their corridors packed with burn victims, shrapnel wounds and dazed survivors pulled from collapsed basements. Exhausted rescue crews describe a nightmare of “stacked bodies and no time,” as aftershocks from secondary explosions continuously shower streets with glass and debris.

Washington and Jerusalem insist their targets are IRGC command centres, missile depots and underground bunkers hidden in civilian areas, arguing that Tehran “turned its own cities into human shields.” Iranian officials counter that this is nothing less than a terror campaign against the population, vowing that every new strike on Tehran will be answered with missiles on Tel Aviv, Haifa and US bases across the region.

With social media flooded by images of a capital bathed in orange fire and black smoke, the battle is now as much about narrative as territory. To supporters of the campaign, these scenes show the regime finally paying the price for decades of aggression; to millions on the ground, they look like a glimpse of hell — and a warning that the worst may still be ahead.