By Ben van der Merwe, Annoa Abekah-Mensah and Alicja Hagopian
In just one week, the US and Israel have dropped more than 7,000 bombs across Iran.
Sky’s Data and Forensics Unit, together with the Institute for the Study of War, have mapped and verified more than 360 strikes.
That includes attacks on military facilities, but also civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, energy infrastructure and a girls’ school.
Use the interactive map below to see all strike locations verified by Sky News and the ISW
On the first day of the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Iranians to topple their government.
“The time has come for all segments of the people in Iran – the Persians, the Kurds, the Azeris, the Balochis, and the Ahwazis – to rid themselves of the yoke of tyranny and bring about a free and peace-seeking Iran,” he said.
US President Donald Trump echoed those views. But the White House has since said that its official war aims are to neutralise the threat posed by Iran’s navy, missiles, nuclear programme and network of allied militias – not regime change.
More recently, Mr Trump has suggested he would be happy for someone within the existing regime to take control if their policies were acceptable to the US.
Mr Trump claims his primary goal was to neutralise Iran’s threat to the US
Mr Trump claims his primary goal was to neutralise Iran’s threat to the US
POLICE STATIONS HAVE BECOME A KEY TARGET
Professor Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, says that the targeting of police stations in Tehran and in Kurdish areas, as identified by Sky News, shows that the US and Israel are still hoping that Iranians will overthrow their own government.
“It’s about regime change,” he says.
“We don’t think the US and Israel have any intention to put boots on the ground, so there is the expectation [that they will need to] create the conditions for the Iranian people to go back to the streets.”
Aftermath of a strike on Tehran on 4 March
Aftermath of a strike on Tehran on 4 March
Tehran has historically been the epicentre of liberal and nationalist opposition to the regime, and was where protests against the government began late last year.
Those protests were met with a lethal crackdown by government forces, including the police.
“Tehran is the centre of power of the Iranian regime – if it collapses, if they can’t control the capital, the assumption is the rest will follow suit,” says Prof Mekelberg.
Kurdish-majority cities like Sanandaj, meanwhile, have long sought greater rights and autonomy from Iran’s central government.
On the first day of the war, the city’s residents greeted the news of Ayatollah Khamenei’s death with public celebration – honking car horns, cheering and blaring music.
Two days later, on 2 March, the war came to Sanandaj.
One of the first targets hit, shown in the video above, was the regional headquarters of the Special Units Command – a branch of the Iranian police often tasked with suppressing protests.
The headquarters of the city’s regular police force also came under attack.
A fire at Sanandaj Police Command following a strike on 2 March
A fire at Sanandaj Police Command following a strike on 2 March
So too did smaller police stations. The video below, verified by Sky News, shows the moment that a police station in the city centre was hit.
Footage filmed later in the day shows the station left in ruins.
The video below shows multiple smoke plumes rising over the city, including from the destruction of yet another police station.
“One of the ways to instigate and maybe accelerate [regime change] is by dismantling the police and the security forces,” says Prof Mekelberg.
“And that’s what Israel and the US are doing, bombing dozens of police stations.”
Sky News has verified footage of strikes on a total of 12 police stations in Kurdish-majority cities, as well as 17 in Tehran.
The Institute for the Study of War has verified attacks on a further three police stations in Tehran and four in Kurdish areas.
KURDISH MILITIAS PREPARING FOR BATTLE
The strikes come as six Kurdish militias, based just across the border in Iraq, are preparing for a possible invasion to support the US-Israeli war.
Members of the Kurdish National Army, an Iranian-Kurdish militia, take part in training in Iraqi Kurdistan on 12 February
Members of the Kurdish National Army, an Iranian-Kurdish militia, take part in training in Iraqi Kurdistan on 12 February
On Thursday, the groups announced that Iranian strikes on their Iraqi bases had killed one fighter and injured several others.
When Sky’s Stuart Ramsay visited one of the militia’s bases, the fighters’ wives and children had already moved out of the compound – leaving the men to prepare for battle.
Read more: The Kurdish fighters mobilising for freedom
“I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that, I’d be all for it,” US President Donald Trump said on Thursday.
When asked, he refused to say whether the US had offered to provide air cover to such an offensive.
The aftermath of a reported drone strike on an Iranian-Kurdish militia’s arms depot in Iraqi Kurdistan on 4 March
The aftermath of a reported drone strike on an Iranian-Kurdish militia’s arms depot in Iraqi Kurdistan on 4 March
Sky News asked senior figures in two of the largest militias whether they had been offered US military support.
Kako Aliyar, a member of Komala’s leadership committee, declined to comment.
Rebaz Sharifi, a senior commander in the Kurdistan National Army, said that “nothing has been officially announced to us yet”.
He added that an incursion into Iran was currently impossible due to the presence of troops from Iran, Iraq and Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
“There is no opportunity for movement,” he said. “I believe when Iran runs out of its arsenal there may be an opportunity.”
In Sanandaj, which lies less than 50 miles (80km) from Iraq, the local Iranian border guard station was among the five police compounds struck on 2 March.
Text messages sent by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to Sanandaj residents that day called on citizens to report any movements of “terrorist groups” and said that the strikes were intended as a prelude to “terrorist acts and street riots”.
Sanandaj’s police court was destroyed on Thursday – the sixth police compound in the city to be destroyed.
That same day, a police station in Evyan, a Kurdish-majority city in western Iran, was also bombed.
Professor Mekelberg says that the attacks on police stations are intended to instil confidence in Iranians that they can rebel without fearing a repeat of the mass killings endured by protesters earlier this year.
“But the risk is that if the regime falls, and falls very quickly without an alternative to it, it might descend into chaos,” he says.
“We saw it in Iraq… you could see different groups trying to take position – even looting, killing. That’s the biggest fear.”
CREDITS
Writing and reporting: Ben van der Merwe, digital investigations journalist, and Annoa Abekah-Mensah, OSINT producer
Data journalism: Alicja Hagopian
Web development: Giacomo Boscaini-Gilroy
Additional reporting: Sophia Massam, Kaitlin Tosh, Freya Gibson and Sam Doak
Editing: Natasha Muktarsingh, forensics journalism editor, Adam Parris-Long, premium content assistant editor, and Chris Howard, data and forensics editor
Images: Reuters
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.