Contacted by RFI, this Iranian tells the story of the capital under the bombs. Tehran is a ghost town but where the population is not suffering from shortages for the moment. "Khamenei was a murderer," says this witness who aspires to the fall of the regime.

Since the attack launched by the United States and Israel on Iran last week, the authorities of the Republic have again cut off the Internet, a process they had already resorted to during the waves of protests and repression in recent years. According to the NGO Netblocks, the internet is operating at only about 1% of its capacity.

In this context, it is difficult to collect testimonies on the spot. Since Saturday, February 28 and the first bombs, RFI journalists have been sending messages to Iranian interlocutors on the ground... until this Thursday and this short conversation with a Tehran resident, who prefers to remain anonymous.

« At first, you hear the planes passing by and then suddenly you hear the bombings. It's really, really scary," says this Iranian from Tehran, who has chosen to stay in a city from which many of its inhabitants have fled. "Yes, Tehran is totally empty. Most people have left the city, they have gone north, to the Caspian Sea, or to the small villages outside the city."

Ghost Town Resident

A ghost town that, on the seventh day of the war, does not seem to be experiencing any supply problems, according to this witness. "For the moment, we can find what we need in the stores. They are open and people come to shop, thank God. And there is also running water and electricity."

Like all his compatriots, this Iranian learned that the first Israeli attack on Iran on Saturday morning killed the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, who had been in power for 37 years. "He was really a murderer," says our interlocutor, who does not hide his dislike for the Islamic Republic, "he killed a lot of people. We had had enough of him, he was really a dictator. We are very, very happy! ». Not everyone shares this opinion, this man notes: "The people who support this regime, they are sad of course. »

« A long war doesn't scare me," adds this Tehran resident whose family has also chosen to stay in the Iranian capital. "We have been living in this system for almost half a century, now it has to change. Even if we have to die, no problem but this must change," he insists.

A few hours after this brief exchange, we received a new message from this Tehran resident. This time, a video shot at night, we see the sky of the Iranian capital ablaze and glow in the distance while we hear the muffled rumble of a bombing. (RFI, 2026-03-06)