Amnesty Says March Tehran Strikes Killed at Least 41 Civilians, Calls for Independent Probes

Amnesty International said Tuesday that evidence from three March 2026 strikes in densely populated Tehran neighborhoods indicates at least 41 civilians were killed and dozens more were injured in attacks it attributes to a U.S.-Israeli coalition, and it called for independent, impartial investigations into whether the strikes were indiscriminate attacks amounting to war crimes.

In a briefing published Sept. 8, Amnesty said the first incident took place around March 1 at Niloufar Square, where it said a strike destroyed 104 Abbas Abad Police Station, also known as Kalantari 104, and caused extensive damage to surrounding apartments, shops and other civilian structures, killing at least 20 civilians. A second strike, around 2:30 p.m. local time on March 9 in the Resalat neighborhood, hit a facility belonging to a Basij battalion of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Amnesty said, killing at least 16 civilians and injuring dozens. Satellite imagery, Amnesty said, showed heavy damage to four buildings, including a residential building known as “Number 12,” or Pelak-e 12, where an eyewitness reported at least 13 civilian deaths from one family. The third incident, around midday on March 13 in Javadieh, killed at least five civilians from the same family and injured dozens, Amnesty said, adding that parts of Police Station 117, or Kalantari 117, on Ghorbani Street were destroyed and nearby residential and commercial buildings were heavily damaged.

Amnesty said its findings were based on satellite imagery, verification of 60 videos published online, reviews of official statements by Iranian, Israeli and U.S. authorities, and interviews with two people inside Iran. “Amnesty International analysed satellite imagery, as well as verifying 60 videos published online in relation to the three incidents. The organization also reviewed official public statements made by authorities in Iran, Israel and the USA and conducted interviews with two individuals inside Iran,” the briefing said. At the Javadieh site, Amnesty said weapons experts identified from a photo published by Iranian state media metal fragments consistent with a component of a U.S.-manufactured JDAM guidance kit, a bomb guidance system used by both U.S. and Israeli forces. Amnesty did not present that finding as definitive proof of which state dropped the weapon.

The organization said neither the United States nor Israel had confirmed carrying out these three specific strikes, even though both publicly acknowledged striking regime and security targets in Tehran in early March 2026. Amnesty said it attributed the incidents to the U.S.-Israeli coalition based on open-source material, satellite imagery and other evidence gathered in its investigation.

The strikes examined by Amnesty came in the opening phase of a joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran that Amnesty said began on Feb. 28, 2026. Citing official figures, Amnesty said at least 1,469 civilians were killed in Iran between Feb. 28 and July 24, 2026. Other open-source investigators and major news outlets had previously documented heavy strike activity in Tehran and civilian harm near police, Basij and other security-related sites in early March.

Amnesty framed its findings as a human rights investigation rather than a judicial ruling, saying the attacks “may constitute indiscriminate attacks and amount to war crimes” under international humanitarian law, the rules intended to protect civilians during armed conflict. “The available evidence in Tehran points to a series of strikes using explosive weapons with wide area effects on security-related facilities within densely populated urban areas, with devastating and yet entirely predictable consequences for civilians,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general. Amnesty said it wrote to Israeli and U.S. authorities on July 17 and to Iranian authorities on July 31, and had received no response by the time the briefing was published.