‘We weren’t expecting it yet’: US attack met with panic in Iran

The question of whether the US would join Israel in its military campaign against Iran had hung in the air since the first Israeli bombs fell nearly 10 days earlier. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Asal* had been expecting the US to bomb Iran, just not so soon. The 22-year-old Tehran University student had believed Donald Trump when his administration said on Thursday that it would wait up to two weeks before deciding whether to attack Iran, apparently to give diplomacy a chance.

And so at 4am when the newscaster announced the bombing on TV, Asal was in disbelief. She rushed to wake her father and the rest of the family, who huddled together in front of the set as the sounds of the news blended with those of bombings elsewhere in the city.