At least 787 people have been killed in ongoing Israeli-U.S. attacks on Iran since Saturday, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said Tuesday, as strikes and retaliatory fire continue to push the region toward a wider war.
The aid organization said on its Telegram channel that strikes had hit 153 cities across the country and that more than 3,600 emergency responders had been deployed nationwide.
Search and rescue operations were continuing in many locations, it added, with teams still pulling bodies and survivors from the rubble of bombed buildings. The group did not provide information on the number of people injured.
The Norway-based human rights organization Hengaw reported a significantly higher death toll, saying Monday that more than 1,500 people had been killed since the attacks began.
According to Hengaw, around 1,300 of the dead were members of the armed forces and about 200 were civilians. The group says it relies on a network of contacts inside Iran to document casualties. The figures from both organizations could not be independently verified.
The current death toll marks a sharp rise from earlier counts released over the weekend by Iranian authorities and aid agencies, reflecting the breadth of the bombing campaign and the difficulty of reaching some affected areas.
The large-scale assault by the United States and Israel began Saturday, targeting multiple Iranian military and political sites and killing several senior officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top military commanders, according to Iranian and regional reports.
In response, Tehran has launched drone and missile attacks against Israel as well as Gulf countries that host U.S. assets, striking or attempting to strike bases and facilities linked to American forces.
