In Frames: A week of fire

The Hindu collection of images of Israel-US strikes on Iran: A week of fire

Missiles tore open the West Asian sky on February 28 as the United States and Israel launched a sweeping assault on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top Generals in what Washington said was a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Satellite images showed the wreckage of the leader’s compound in Tehran, where smoke curled above shattered roofs.

Within hours, grief spilled onto the streets. Mourners waving Iranian flags gathered in vigil while symbolic funerals echoed from Tehran to Baghdad, where crowds chanted against Washington and Tel Aviv.

Iran’s retaliation followed swiftly. Missiles streaked toward Israel and U.S. bases across the Gulf. Explosions rattled Bahrain, debris from intercepted drones near oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia halted services, industrial zones in the United Arab Emirates were targeted, and the conflict’s tremors reached Lebanon, home to Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Amid the spiralling escalation — from verbal taunts by leaders, pummelling of air strikes to attacks by non-state actors, civilians bore the quiet cost.

In Jerusalem, mourners buried three siblings killed by Iranian fire. In Iran’s Minab, graves were dug after a strike on a girls’ school reported to have killed over 150, most of them children. The fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 200 in Lebanon, and 11 in Israel, according to officials in those countries.

The war’s shockwaves are also rippling through global markets, threatening economic turmoil that could spill crises far beyond the battlefield.

Capital under fire: Smoke rises over Tehran after a U.S.- Israel strike on March 3. Washington warned it was ‘too late’ for talks as Iran intensified attacks on economic targets and U.S. missions across West Asia.