Investigations

Andrew Callaghan filmed Tehran rallies during the US-Iran war

He walked Azadi Square in the war's fourth week after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died in an air strike.

In Tehran, Andrew Callaghan filmed street rallies at Azadi Square while the United States and Israel fought Iran into a fourth week.

The war followed the Feb. 28 killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an air strike. More than 2,000 people had died across the Middle East, and President Donald Trump approved the deployment of another 1,000 soldiers to the region.

At a Death to America rally, Iranians told Callaghan the chant targeted imperialism, not individual Americans. Mourners tied Khamenei's death to Trump and vowed to stay in the streets until the United States and Israel were destroyed. Yellow Hezbollah flags mixed with Iranian ones.

Epstein dominated conversation. Iranians said state media had spread claims about island crimes, including an allegation that elites ate babies, and that the story shocked the country. Callaghan said many takes sounded issued by broadcasters rather than improvised.

Near the Strait of Hormuz, residents described a strike on a girls' school that killed more than 100 students ages 7 to 12. They said warplanes hit the upper story twice, the second time as rescuers arrived, and that neither missiles nor bombs were stored there.

A historian Callaghan interviewed put American support for the war at 28 percent, lower than any conflict since Vietnam. AAA put the national average for regular gas at $3.97 a gallon after a 24th straight day of increases, the highest since 2022.

Iran shut down the internet after economic protests in December, and outside groups disputed how many demonstrators died. Callaghan compared Iran's single state broadcaster to the overlapping corporate narratives Americans navigate at home.

The AP Iran war hub tracked ongoing US strikes and Iranian retaliation as fighting entered its fourth week.

Source video: Iran