February 2026 in Iran

The 2025–2026 Iranian protests are a series of nationwide demonstrations against the government of Iran that began on 28 December 2025 amid a deepening economic crisis. The unrest followed a sharp depreciation of the Iranian rial, rising inflation, and widespread shortages linked to international sanctions and government mismanagement. This event has been the largest uprising in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, spreading to more than 200 cities across the country. The ensuing crackdown, reportedly carried out under orders by Ali Khamenei and senior officials to use live fire on protesters, resulted in massacres that left thousands of protesters dead, making them the largest massacres in modern Iranian history.

On 28 February 2026, Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, was assassinated in Tehran as part of a series of Israeli airstrikes aimed at high-ranking Iranian officials. Khamenei's death was confirmed by the Iranian government on 1 March. His death occurred as part of a wider joint operation by the United States and Israel, using strategic locations intelligence from the US's Central Intelligence Agency to determine the whereabouts of several leaders. Satellite imagery suggested that Khamenei's residence in the city was severely damaged during the attack.

Since the beginning of the 2025–26 Iranian protests, the Iranian government has perpetrated widespread massacres of civilians, deploying both its own security forces and importing foreign militias to suppress public dissent nationwide. As of 25 January 2026, the total death toll estimates ranged from 6,488 people to upwards of ~36,500 people, including 209 government-affiliated military and non-military personnel, making these among the largest massacres in the modern history of Iran.

On 28 February 2026, the first day of the 2026 Iran war, the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School, providing co-located single-gender education, of the Shahrak-e Al-Mahdi neighbourhood in Minab, Hormozgan province in southern Iran was destroyed by a missile strike. According to witness accounts corroborated by satellite-based analyses, the area of the school was hit by multiple strikes. The roof of the school collapsed on students. 156 civilians were killed, including 120 schoolchildren. As of 15 March 2026, the attack was the deadliest strike in terms of civilian casualties in the ongoing war. Multiple independent investigations concluded that the United States was responsible for the strike.

internet outage in Iran

protests outside of Iran against the Iranian regime