Nobel laureate condemns child’s killing at Iranian checkpoint

"Some of our air defenses were damaged, this is not something we can hide, but our colleagues have used domestic resources and replaced them with pre-arranged systems that were stored in suitable locations in order to keep the airspace secure," Mousavi added.

During the June conflict, Israel's air force took control of Iranian airspace, delivering a significant blow to the country's air defenses, while Iran's armed forces responded with successive waves of missile and drone attacks on Israeli territory.

“We were able to cover the skies using existing and new systems, securing the airspace of our dear Iran,” he said. “The enemy, despite its desperate efforts, failed to achieve its goals.”

Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, also echoed that message. “Air defense proved on the front lines of protecting Iran’s skies that it will resist any level of threat,” he said. “Downing so many enemy aircraft shows the courage and will of our defenders.”

Iran says it has downed several Israeli fighter jets but has not provided any footage or additional details.

Israeli forces struck targets across Iran freely during the 12-day war, including in and around the capital.

Israeli military officials say that 120 air defense systems were destroyed or disabled since the first wave of attacks—around a third of Iran’s pre-war total. Long-range systems, including Russian-supplied S-300s and Iran’s Bavar-373 batteries, were among those targeted.

“Iran relied on a fragmented mix of Russian S-300s, Chinese batteries, and local Bavar-373 systems – none of which were adequately integrated… The air defense radar was Russian and Chinese made, which have known issues of target discrimination, without any integration among bases and military units,” wrote the Global Defense Corp.

Mossad operations and precision strikes

In late June, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz directed the military to prepare an enforcement plan against Iran, which includes maintaining air superiority, blocking missile development, and deterring Iran's regional activities.

The plan, according to Katz’s, aimed to ensure Israel can respond kinetically to future threats.

A security source speaking to N12 also said Mossad operatives inside Iran played a central role in shaping the battlespace, deploying loitering munitions and attack drones, and establishing a covert launch site in the heart of Iran to suppress air defenses.

The War Zone website, a resource for the defense industry, released more details of Iran’s defense being destroyed.

“Among the targets reportedly prosecuted by Israeli operatives within Iran was an air defense site near Tehran. Shortly before the operation began, Israeli drones launched from within Iran struck surface-to-air missile launchers there, clearing the way for the larger strike, which also involved Israeli Air Force (IAF) fighter jets."

"This would also explain the apparent inactivity by Iranian air defense sites during the Israeli bombardment. At the same time, the IAF has also been flying suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses (SEAD/DEAD) operations that the service says have destroyed “dozens of radars and surface-to-air missile launchers,” wrote the website.

Airspace remains exposed

Iran’s geographic scale -- roughly 1.6 million square kilometers -- poses a constant challenge for integrated air defense. The Islamic Republic lacks a modern fighter fleet to complement its missile systems and has relied on Cold War-era aircraft. Several of these have been destroyed on the ground in recent strikes, according to Israeli military imagery.

After limited Israeli strikes targeted Iranian missile factories last October, Iran later showcased Russian-made air defenses and its Bavar-373 system to project defensive strength, but Israeli aircraft, including F-35 stealth fighters, encountered little documented resistance during the 12-day conflict.

Details released Saturday night -- despite tight security censorship in Israel over last month’s conflict with Iran -- revealed that in January, the military intelligence team issued an early warning following advances in Iran’s weapons program.

"The nuclear team in the Control Department issues a concrete warning about the launch of a coordinated project to produce the final stage required for launching a nuclear missile in Iran," it said.

Around the same time, the research division of Israel’s military intelligence also issued a warning, identifying a covert team of Iranian nuclear scientists allegedly working on previously undeveloped components needed to complete the final stage of a nuclear missile launch.

The head of military intelligence, Shlomi Binder, established a special team with several tech experts with an emphasis on nuclear weapons to plan the attacks on Iran's nuclear infrastructure. They also focused on how to do simultaneous assassinations of the country's military and nuclear chiefs.

In May, Binder issued his own warning to the political echelon: "I would like to alert decision-makers to disturbing developments in the field of nuclear weapons in Iran. It appears that Iran is continuing to make determined progress that is shortening the technological and cognitive distance required to complete the development of a nuclear weapons device.”

On June 13, Israel launched a series of surprise attacks which led to the deaths of around 30 military commanders and nuclear scientists and a 12-day war which caused widespread destruction to both sides.

As the fragile ceasefire holds by a thread, the United States is now awaiting Iran’s return to the negotiating table for a new nuclear agreement. Both Washington and Tel Aviv have warned that failure to reach a deal could trigger further military strikes.

Authorities said the shootings occurred when forces guarding a military facility in the city of Khomein opened fire on two suspicious vehicles. A local governor later confirmed the deaths of four civilians in the incident.

The victims were named as Mohammad-Hossein Sheikhi, Mahboubeh Sheikhi, their three-year-old daughter Raha, and a woman identified as Farzaneh Heidari, believed to be the family’s sister-in-law.

"The perpetrators of this incident are currently under arrest," said Ebrahim Gamizi, the public prosecutor in Khomein, who announced the opening of a judicial investigation.

The government did not specify which body the shooters belonged to. However, a number of social media accounts, including one saying to represent the Sheikhi family, said the assailants were members of the Basij paramilitary force and that the shooting occurred at a checkpoint.

Several posts said that Heidari’s child is also in a coma due to gunshot wounds.

'Another Kian'

Images of Raha Sheikhi circulated widely online, with social media users comparing her death to that of nine-year-old Kian Pirfalak, who was killed during the 2022 anti-government protests when forces opened fire on his family’s car in Izeh, Khuzestan province.

Dozens of users described Raha’s killing as a repetition of Kian’s, accusing authorities of targeting unarmed civilians under the guise of enforcing tightened security following the war with Israel.

Exiled prince Reza Pahlavi wrote on X: “The bloodstained hands of Khamenei’s IRGC and Basij have once again taken the lives of innocent children of Iran. In the city of Khomein, they slaughtered the Sheikhi family including a baby girl, Raha.”

“It shows the true nature of a desperate and criminal regime—one that can no longer even protect its own leaders and resorts instead to taking revenge for its humiliation by murdering children.”

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi said in a statement that the Sheikhi family was killed with military weapons and “the child’s voice was silenced by the sound of gunfire as her chest was torn apart in her parents’ arms.”

Mohammadi linked the killings to broader patterns of lethal force at checkpoints, citing the deaths of women in a village near Khash and several young men in Hamedan. “There are no bombs or rockets—but bullets rain down. There is no war—but fire rains down."

Checkpoints become flashpoints

The Khomein shootings follow a string of recent incidents at checkpoints operated by the Revolutionary Guards and its Basij paramilitary forces since Iran’s 12-day conflict with Israel in June. Officials have expanded internal security measures in the wake of the conflict, increasing the number of stop-and-search stations on highways and in cities.

On July 2, the IRGC-linked Fars News Agency confirmed that security forces fatally shot two young men—Mehdi Abaei and Alireza Karbasi—near Hamedan, west of Iran. They had been on a hiking trip. Their funeral drew chants of “I will kill whoever killed my brother.”

Authorities have routinely pledged to investigate such killings, but there has been no public reporting on disciplinary action or legal proceedings against the shooters. Instead, survivors and bereaved families have often faced pressure to remain silent and abandon legal claims.

In one of the most recent cases, 32-year-old Arezou Badri was left with severe spinal injuries after being shot by police in July last year, for allegedly violating mandatory hijab rules inside her car.

A pattern unbroken

Despite official pledges of transparency and justice, authorities have provided no updates in similar past cases. In the Pirfalak case, officials initially accused a dissident named Mojahed Kourkour, later executing him in June on charges of “enmity against God,” despite denials of his involvement by Kian’s mother, Mahmonir Molaeirad.

In posts featuring images with Kourkour’s mother, Molaeirad repeatedly insisted that security forces were responsible for her son's death and that the Islamic Republic was “trying to bury the truth.”

The repeated killings at checkpoints, and what critics see as impunity for the perpetrators, continue to fuel public mistrust.

“The precondition for any referendum is the removal of power from the Islamic Republic,” Ebadi wrote, rejecting Mir Hossein Mousavi’s recent call for a national vote to reform the state’s political structure.

Earlier this month, Mousavi said in a statement that the current structure of the Islamic Republic “does not represent all Iranians.”

“The twelve-day war (with Israel) showed that the only guarantee for the nation’s survival is respect for every citizen’s right to self-determination,” the former prime minister added.

Mousavi, under house arrest since 2009, had urged the formation of a constitutional assembly through a public vote. His message was endorsed by over 800 civil and political figures who demanded the release of political prisoners and the drafting of a new constitution based on democracy and human rights.

But Ebadi, a prominent critic of the Islamic Republic, said such a process is legally unworkable within the current framework. She said Iran’s constitution explicitly bars changes to core principles such as clerical rule, Islamic law, and the system’s Islamic identity.

“Such a structure rules out the formation of a democratic and secular government,” she said.

She dismissed the latest wave of endorsements for Mousavi’s initiative as driven by sentiment rather than strategy.

“The recent statement signed by over 800 activists seems driven more by Mousavi’s political charisma than by any viable solution to Iran’s crisis."

Referendum seen as a trap

Ebadi also warned that a referendum sanctioned by the ruling establishment could become a tool to legitimize its hold on power.

“Any government is legally bound by its own constitution and cannot hold a referendum against its own existence. Therefore, such a request from the government is baseless,” she wrote.

Ebadi called instead for a UN-supervised referendum to manage a transition away from the Islamic Republic, citing a 2018 statement she co-authored with 14 other dissidents advocating for a full political break.

Along with cleric Mehdi Karroubi, Mousavi was a candidate in the disputed 2009 presidential election and challenged the results, leading large protests dubbed the Green Movement for months before he was arrested and placed under house arrest.

His wife Zahra Rahnavard and Karroubi were also accused of sedition against the Islamic Republic and remain under house arrest.

Citizen reports of water outages in the capital began surfacing on Tuesday and continued into the following days.

On Thursday, Ham-Mihan, a Tehran-based newspaper, described the situation as “silent water rationing” and noted that officials had so far refused to acknowledge any interruption in service.

“The water company denies cuts and only mentions low pressure,” the paper wrote. “Still, its own managing director has now urged residents to purchase water tanks.”

Mohsen Ardakani, managing director of the Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Company, said on Wednesday that no cuts were taking place.

“If there are 20 percent savings in water use, there will be no outages. Without it, we will enter the stage of water cuts,” he added.

Outages concentrated in southern Tehran

Field reports indicate that southern and peripheral districts of Tehran are most affected. Residents of Salehiyeh, Pishva, and villages around Kahrizak and Baghershahr, all around Tehran, have faced recurring shutoffs in recent weeks, often occurring at night and appearing to follow a pattern.

In February, as complaints over weak flow mounted, Hesam Khosravi, deputy director of operations at Tehran Water and Wastewater Company, said the company was only responsible for supplying pressurized water to the second floor of buildings. Residents on higher floors, he added, should install pumps and tanks to meet their own needs.

Denial echoes past blackout policy

The pattern recalls the government’s approach to managing electricity shortages. During a period of rotating blackouts in Tehran, officials admitted to cutting power less frequently in wealthier or central neighborhoods to avoid unrest, while southern and marginal areas endured longer outages.

Similar disparities are now emerging in water supply. Reports received by Iran International confirm worsening water quality and intermittent cuts not only in Tehran but also in West Azarbaijan, Razavi Khorasan, and Khuzestan provinces.