A research centre at Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran has been left in ruins after warplanes struck the campus, in what Iranian authorities describe as part of a widening pattern of attacks on civilian sites during the US-Israel war on Iran.
The strike on Friday hit the university’s Laser and Plasma Research Institute. No deaths were reported because the campus was largely empty after the government moved classes across the country online until further notice. Nearby dormitories were reported to have sustained minor damage.
The United States and Israel did not publicly explain the reason for the attack. However, Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a senior physicist and nuclear scientist who was killed during Israel’s earlier 12-day war in June, had directed a magneto-photonics laboratory at the university.
In a statement, Shahid Beheshti University said the strike was not only a threat to academics and Iran’s scientific community, but also an attack on research, reason and freedom of thought. The institution called on universities around the world to speak out against similar attacks.
At Least 30 Universities Affected
Iran’s science minister, Hossein Simaei Saraf, said on Saturday that parts of at least 30 universities have been affected by US and Israeli attacks since the war began on February 28. He said Iranian scientists have long been targeted and noted that several professors from Shahid Beheshti University were also assassinated during the previous June conflict.
Saraf said attacks on universities and research centres amounted to dragging society backwards, linking them to earlier threats by US President Donald Trump to strike Iran’s infrastructure extensively.
Another major institution hit during the war was Tehran’s Science and Technology University, where a research centre was reportedly reduced to rubble and other departments were damaged. The site had been involved in work on domestically produced satellites.
Health and Scientific Institutions Also Hit
Other civilian institutions have also been damaged. The Pasteur Institute in central Tehran, founded more than a century ago and now operating independently, was attacked as well. The institute works on infectious disease research, vaccine production, biological products and advanced diagnostics.
The World Health Organization said two departments at the institute serve as WHO collaborating centres and confirmed that the facility had suffered major damage that left it unable to continue providing health services, though no fatalities were reported there.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that more than 20 attacks had hit healthcare facilities in Iran since the beginning of March. Among the sites damaged was the Delaram Sina Psychiatric Hospital, which sustained heavy damage in a strike on Sunday.
A major pharmaceutical company near Tehran was also targeted this week. Iranian officials said the strike was intended to disrupt medicine supply chains, while Israel claimed the company had links to chemical weapons production.
Civilian Areas and Industry Under Pressure
The conflict has also damaged schools, homes and businesses across Iran. Iranian authorities say more than 2,000 people have been killed so far. On Friday night, fighter jets flew at low altitude over Tehran and carried out strikes that lit up the mountainous areas north of the capital.
In recent days, US and Israeli attacks have increasingly shifted toward economic infrastructure. Heavy bombardment on Saturday hit the economic zone of Mahshahr, a major industrial and export centre in the oil-rich southwest. Several refineries were badly damaged and at least five people were wounded, according to a local official.
The day before, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had destroyed 70 percent of Iran’s steel production capacity after repeated strikes on two major manufacturers, including the largest steel producer in the Middle East.
Bridge Strike and Threats Against Utilities
Also on Friday, two waves of air raids caused major damage to the B1 bridge near Tehran. At least eight people were killed and more than 90 were injured in the attack, which happened while many families were gathered nearby for Sizdah Bedar, also known as Nature Day.
The suspension bridge, built by Iranian engineers and nearing inauguration, had not yet opened to traffic. It was intended to reduce congestion between Tehran, Karaj and northern provinces. A US official told Axios the bridge was targeted because it was allegedly being used by Iranian forces to move missiles and support military logistics.
Trump celebrated the strike by sharing a video of the bridge partially collapsing and warned that more attacks would follow. On Saturday, he reiterated that Iran had 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face simultaneous strikes on its top electricity plants. He also threatened water desalination facilities. According to the source text, those are civilian sites protected under international law.
Nuclear Area Strikes and Legal Concerns
Iranian officials and commanders from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have said they will not surrender and instead will intensify retaliation across the region. Meanwhile, Washington has also struck the area around the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant four times during the war. The latest attack on Saturday reportedly killed a guard and damaged a nearby structure without hitting the reactor itself. Several other civilian nuclear facilities have also been attacked and destroyed over the past week.
More than 100 US legal experts this week condemned the strikes affecting civilians in Iran, saying they raised serious concerns about possible violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. They also warned of the risk of wider atrocities across the region.