Reuters journalists observed damage at 11 historic buildings during rare March access

A first set of blast waves set ancient domes and minarets trembling around the most famous square in the ancient city of Isfahan. Another bombing in the city centre, two days later, blanketed the floors of a 400-year-old royal complex with shards of debris.

Those Israeli airstrikes, on 7 March and 9 March, shook the monuments at Naqsh-e Jahan square and the Chehel Sotoun Palace, two of Iran's most treasured cultural complexes. Two weeks later, plaster and broken tile still crunched underfoot in some places.

"These buildings were like part of us," said Rasoul Mosavi, his head still bandaged in gauze from the injury he received in the explosion. He led Reuters journalists through the museum where he has worked as a security guard for 16 years. "This place is very dear to my heart."

From the roof, the intended target of the 9 March bomb was visible less than 200 metres away: the Isfahan governor's building, which was partially destroyed but also apparently empty when it was struck.

In March, before the ceasefire in the US-Israel war on Iran, Reuters journalists were granted rare access to the palace and Naqsh-e Jahan square and its surroundings, as well as two palaces in Tehran. They saw first-hand how the war has damaged Iran's historic sites, including some protected under an international treaty administered by the UN cultural body UNESCO. In all, Reuters journalists observed damage at 11 historic buildings.

In addition, experts who track the war's impact on world heritage sites said they confirmed damage at the Trans-Iranian Railway and Jameh Mosque in Isfahan, as well as an 1,800-year-old fortress near prehistoric caves settled by humans as long as 63,000 years ago.

In two decades of ground and air warfare by the United States and its allies in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan, Reuters could find no examples of damage to cultural heritage sites listed at the time by UNESCO.

UNESCO hasn't yet sent teams to the sites protected in its register, and has been limited to using satellite imagery to assess the damage. To date, UNESCO says it has verified damage at seven sites in Iran, including two on its international list as well as four cultural properties of national importance and a religious site.

UNESCO told Reuters it was not consulted either before or during the war but shared coordinates of critical sites with "all parties in the conflict."

"UNESCO calls all parties to conflicts to respect international law, including the protection of cultural property, and to take all necessary measures to prevent damage to cultural heritage," the world body said.

Ranging from shattered glass and broken tile to cracked walls and shaken foundations, the damage was mostly inflicted by bomb shock waves radiating out nearly 20 times faster than the speed of sound. Those waves can cause severe damage to structures nearly a kilometre away from the detonation itself, according to Wes Bryant, a former targeting specialist with the US Air Force.

The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged targeting the governor's office in Isfahan, which is adjacent to the UNESCO-listed palace complex. It said it had also struck a base belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a little over a kilometre from the historic sites, on 7 March.

"The IDF operates in accordance with international law and targets military objectives only," an IDF statement said. In general, the statement said, Israel's strikes "were based on reliable intelligence, operational verification, established approval processes, and, where appropriate, legal review, and were carried out in accordance with applicable international law."

Reuters spoke to eight experts in Middle Eastern archaeology and preservation of heritage sites who said the reporting shows a clear shift in US targeting practices and priorities away from protecting internationally recognised historical landmarks.

The gloves are off

The shift comes two decades after widespread criticism of an American military base set up in the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the looting of the Baghdad Museum prompted the Pentagon to revamp its policies on protection of cultural sites.

In recent wars, Bryant said, historical landmarks would have been included on "no strike lists". Dropping bombs on or near these sites, he said, required both a compelling military necessity, such as protecting the lives of soldiers, and high-level approval, sometimes even from the White House.

Among the sites damaged were Tehran's Golestan Palace and bazaar; four sites at Isfahan's Naqsh-e Jahan Square; and the Chehel Sotoun complex, Reuters confirmed through visits.

Mehrnoush Soroush, the director of the Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes, a University of Chicago organisation that is tracking damaged cultural sites in Iran, said her team had also confirmed damage at Jameh Mosque in Isfahan and at the Andimeshk railway station along the Trans-Iranian Railway, a UNESCO-listed site that links the Caspian Sea in the northeast with the Gulf.

Both Soroush and UNESCO also confirmed extensive damage at Falak-ol-Aflak, an ancient fortress in western Iran's Khorramabad Valley.

Reuters verified photos of damage to windows of the fortress.

Israel's military issued warnings for Iranian citizens in early April to avoid trains, and Israel's statement to Reuters said the Qom railway bridge was struck to prevent Iran from moving weaponry.

Iran's UNESCO representative provided a list of 134 cultural heritage sites it said were damaged by the war to the UN cultural body and shared it with Reuters.

Though not all are listed on the UNESCO roster, they are some of Iran's most popular tourist attractions, bringing in millions of visitors every year.

"It's just unbelievable. In my wildest dreams I never thought this would happen. These are not really military sites," said Farshid Emami, an associate professor at the department of art history at Rice University in Texas and an author of a book on Isfahan architecture.

The Pentagon declined to comment.

"Operation Epic Fury was scoped around key objectives: destroy Iran's ballistic missiles, demolish their production facilities, sink their navy, weaken their proxies, and ensure they can never possess a nuclear weapon," said Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, using the Trump administration's operational name for the war in Iran. "Unlike Iran, the United States does not target civilians."

The 1954 Hague Convention, a treaty dedicated to safeguarding cultural heritage, explicitly protects sites like those in Isfahan during armed conflict.

The intentional targeting of civilian cultural property is considered a war crime under international law, and any strikes on nearby targets must be carefully weighed against any damage they might sustain.

Cultural jewel

Even by Iranian standards for historical significance, Isfahan is considered a cultural jewel, drawing comparisons to the centres of Rome, Athens or Kyoto.

Also home to one of Iran's nuclear sites, Isfahan sits at the heart of a vast plain in the high Iranian plateau and straddles the river Zayanderud, a Persian word that means "lifegiving".

The river halves the city into the older, northern section that is home to historic sites, and the wealthier neighbourhoods to the south with more modern residential compounds.

The monuments and heritage sites around the Naqsh-e Jahan square, close to the Chehel Sotoun Palace, were popular places for residents to gather.

On 7 March, Israeli bombs struck 300 metres from the 400-year-old Si-o-se-pol bridge over the river, targeting IRGC sites.

When bombs rained down on the IRGC site, blast waves reverberated a kilometre away, shaking Naqsh-e Jahan square, witnesses said.

Two days later, on 9 March, another volley targeting the governor's office shook the square again and the neighbouring Chehel Sotoun Palace complex.

It was around 2 pm, and Mosavi, the elderly security guard, was finishing his shift at the Museum of Decorative Arts, which had been converted from a 17th-century royal palace within the complex.

Just 10 minutes later, jets flew overhead, followed by twin explosions.

Most of the windows in the museum were shattered. The ceiling of the main hall collapsed, exposing the building's bones.

Plaster and glass surrounded mannequins wearing traditional colourful Iranian garb.

"It took hundreds of years to build this site," said Bordbar. "In one moment it can be destroyed."

"This war paralysed us," the engraver said.

I was in shock

In Tehran, a stone's throw from that city's famed old bazaar, sits the Golestan Palace, a centuries-old royal complex.

On the night of 1 March, American and Israeli forces struck Tehran's judicial buildings adjacent to the ancient palace, which became a sea of debris, with shattered wooden artwork and mirrors knocked down from the ceiling.

"When I came in here, I was in a shock, and frozen in place amid the glass," she said on condition of anonymity.

No one was killed in the blasts but two employees suffered minor injuries, the employee said.

After 15 minutes, she suddenly said it was time for everyone to leave – and quickly. She scurried ahead and pointed at the ceiling which, she said, might collapse at any moment.

 

Iran / Unesco / UNESCO world heritage site

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