Sunday 05/April/2026 – 12:55 AM
The American newspaper The Washington Post revealed in a comprehensive report that dozens of universities were exposed Iranian Scientific research centers were subjected to widespread destruction as a result of the ongoing air strikes launched by the United States and Israel, which resulted in severe damage to infrastructure and the cessation of educational and health services, amid international warnings against targeting civilian and medical facilities, and the death toll exceeding more than 2,000 dead since the outbreak of the war.
Targeting universities as the United States and Israel escalate their attacks on Iranian infrastructure
The Washington Post reported that the destruction affected the prestigious Shahid Beheshti University, located in the north of the capital, Tehran, where its Laser and Plasma Research Institute was turned into rubble after being subjected to direct bombardment by warplanes, as part of an escalating and continuing pattern of targeting civilian and academic sites by the United States and Israel. It confirmed that the sudden attack did not result in human casualties among students or professors, given the Iranian government’s proactive decision to convert classrooms in all Iranian universities to the distance education system, and empty the buildings. Educational facilities are fully closed until further notice, with minor material damage recorded in university residences adjacent to the site of the violent explosion.
The American newspaper explained that the United States and Israel did not officially announce the motives behind this violent bombing, but the targeted institute included a laboratory for magnetic photonics run by the theoretical and nuclear physicist Mohammad Mehdi Tehranji, who was assassinated during the first days of the war. The university administration considered this hostile act to be a clear attack on freedom of thought and scientific research. It appealed to the international academic community and global educational institutions to intervene urgently and raise awareness of the seriousness of these repeated military strikes that threaten the scientific environment and destroy the research infrastructure. developed in the country.
The Washington Post quoted the statements of the Minister of Science, Research and Technology, Hussein Simai Sarraf, who confirmed during an inspection tour that large parts of at least thirty universities had been damaged by raids since the beginning of the war in late February, warning that targeting research centers would return the country to the Stone Ages, in a clear reference to previous threats made by US President Donald Trump to bomb Iran’s infrastructure and power stations and return them to the Stone Ages. The Minister referred to a series of systematic assassinations that targeted a number of the most prominent university professors, and the report added. The investigative report revealed that the military strikes also targeted the Tehran University of Science and Technology, where it was subjected to a missile attack that completely destroyed one of its research centers specialized in developing local satellites.
The fierce attacks extended to the health sector, as the Washington Post documented the bombing of the historic Pasteur Institute in the center of the capital, which works in the field of combating infectious diseases and producing vaccines. The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed that the institute was out of service, and more than 20 health care facilities in Iran were subjected to direct attacks, including the Delaram Sina Psychiatric Hospital and a major pharmaceutical manufacturing company, as the Iranian government confirms that the goal is to strike drug supply lines, while Israel claims that the company is linked to the production of chemical weapons, and these expanded attacks on schools resulted. More than 2,000 people were killed, according to official statistics, amidst warplanes continuing to fly at low levels and launching violent night raids that illuminated the skies of the mountainous areas north of the capital.
