'They beat us with whips': Sudan RSF detainees tell of horrors in El-Fasher

Tawila (Sudan) (AFP) – In the suffocating darkness of a sealed shipping container, every thud signalled to Ibrahim Noureldin that one more detainee had died in the crush as Sudanese paramilitary fighters kept forcing more men inside.


Issued on: 22/03/2026 - RFI

Thousands of people are estimated to have been detained in the Rapid Support Forces' (RSF) October takeover of North Darfur's El-Fasher, a battle that a UN investigation found bore the "hallmarks of genocide".

"When people died of thirst and hunger, we were beaten and forced to bury them outside," 42-year-old Noureldin said.

"We were put to work, lifting their luggage, materials, weapons. If we moved too slowly, they beat us with whips," he told AFP from Tawila -- an overwhelmed refugee town west of El-Fasher now sheltering hundreds of thousands of people.

In February, the United Nations' rights office and the London-based Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) said that the RSF had converted hospitals, schools, warehouses and shipping containers -- like the easy-to-lock, inescapable box that nearly killed Noureldin -- into a sprawling network of makeshift prisons.

The RSF, at war with Sudan's regular army for nearly three years, has an iron grip on El-Fasher, and has only allowed in a handful of humanitarians, who say the city is "a ghost town".

But in Tawila, an AFP journalist gathered rare testimonies from five former detainees, speaking to them inside fragile shelters of straw and tattered fabric.
'Sips of water'

Under one straw awning, Noureldin leaned on a crutch, still weak from his injuries.

On October 26, he and six others were fleeing the RSF's final assault on the city when they were "shot at, beaten and accused of fighting for the army".

He was loaded into a Land Cruiser and taken to al-Borsa market in the city's east, then locked with about 120 men in the airless container.

For over a month, they survived on "tiny sips of water" and "a little lentils".

Months of testimony, satellite imagery and verified videos analysed by the UN and CIR show that the detainees included government workers, doctors, journalists, teachers and aid staff.

Many were held for ransom, accused of army affiliation or based on tribal identity.

The RSF denies the abuses. A spokesman told AFP the reports were "propaganda", accusing the army of "using civilians as human shields".

Both warring sides have been accused of atrocities against civilians, including deliberate targeting and detention.
'Nails ripped with pliers'

One of the RSF's largest detention centres was El-Fasher Children's Hospital, where "more than 2,000 men" were held "without access to water and food", the UN said.

Abdullah Idris says he was detained by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces © - / AFP


"They brought us to the children's hospital, said we were fighters and kept me there for a month," Abdullah Idris, 45, told AFP.

With nothing but saline solution to drink, he said he "could only watch" as dozens of people died every day.

The UN recorded up to 40 deaths a day during a cholera-like outbreak, killing 260 people in a single week.

Besides disease, "the torture was horrible, especially to the young men", he said.

"If you tried to speak, they'd kill you with a single shot."

Ahmed Aman, 45, another hospital detainee, said some detainees "had their fingernails ripped out with pliers".

After weeks at the hospital, he was moved to Garni, northwest of El-Fasher, where CIR-verified footage showed "at least 600 detainees" being forcibly marched, including women and children.
'Like animals'

Nedal Yasser, 27, was abducted the day after the RSF assault on the city.

For six weeks, she was shuttled with other women between detention sites, including al-Mina al-Bary, a bus depot near the market where the UN said hundreds were held in about 70 shipping containers.

"I was beaten, tied up, interrogated. When they found out my husband was a soldier, the torture got even worse," she told AFP.

"We were exploited and sexually harassed, only sometimes allowed to go to the bathroom."

She and the other women were ordered to pay $2,000 ransoms, but everything she owned had "already been looted".

Finally, she was brought to a house, "assaulted", then dumped in a remote area.

She walked dozens of kilometres to Tawila, suffering a miscarriage on the way.

The UN has documented widespread torture and "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment", including sexual violence, beatings with wooden rods, flogging and being suspended in painful positions from trees.

In the open fields of Tawila, survivors carry the scars.
Ahmed Aman says some detainees "had their fingernails ripped out with pliers" © - / AFP


Aman's back remains "torn apart" from beatings.

Yasser regularly faints when she tries to stand.

And mechanic Ahmed al-Sheikh, 43, walks with a limp and cannot see out of his right eye after being struck by an RSF fighter.

He reached safety only in February after four months in Shala prison, where the UN said the RSF held more than 2,000 detainees by January.

"They'd kill people right in front of us," he told AFP.

"They would select people randomly, killing us like animals."

According to the UN, at least 6,000 more detainees were transferred from El-Fasher to Tagris prison in the RSF's de facto capital, Nyala, where they maintain a complete communications blackout.

© 2026 AFP

EXPLAINER

'Harm at a population level': World Happiness Report flags social media's negative impact


Young people have a “much lower” level of wellbeing than 15 years ago due to the effects of social media use, according to the 2026 edition of the World Happiness Report, which sees Finland maintain its position as the world’s happiest country for the ninth consecutive year.


Issued on: 20/03/2026 
FRANCE24
By: Pauline ROUQUETTE

Teenagers use their smartphones at the entrance of their high school in Seville, Spain on February 6, 2026. © Cristina Quicler, AFP

Where is the happiest country in the world? For the ninth consecutive year, Finland found itself at the top of the annual ranking of 147 countries compiled by the World Happiness Report, from the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre.

Nordic countries maintained their typical dominance of the upper echelons of the list, which was published on Friday, with Iceland, Denmark, Costa Rica, Sweden and Norway completing the top six. The fourth-place ranking for Costa Rica is the best ever achieved by a Latin American country.

Meanwhile France placed 35th – its lowest ever ranking and a fall of two places in the past 12 months.

The report, which was compiled in partnership with global analytics firm Gallup and the UN, is published each year on the first day of spring and has become an indispensable resource for addressing the growing global interest in incorporating happiness – or well-being – into public policy.

As well as giving country rankings, it also provides insights into global wellbeing trends which, this year, came with a warning: Social media is taking a significant toll on the happiness of young people in the West.

The authors concluded, “if social media platforms did not exist, many users would be better off”.

Cyberbullying, sextortion, depression

The harms caused by social media to young users are “diverse and vast in scope”, the report found, ranging from “overwhelming evidence of severe and widespread” direct harm such as cyberbullying and sextortion, to “compelling evidence” of indirect harm such as depression.

This years’ report comes as more and more governments around the world are introducing laws to reduce social media use in a bid to protect younger users.

READ MOREFrench lawmakers advance measure that would ban social media for under-15s

Researchers for the report compile data on happiness by asking around 100,000 participants from each country to rank where they stand on a scale of zero to 10, with zero being the worst possible version of their life and 10 being the best.

Responses are collected throughout the year, taking into account factors such as religious observances, weather patterns, pandemics and war.

The survey results give an overall score: for example this year, French participants came out with an average 6.586 compared with 7.764 for their Finnish counterparts.

The scores are then filtered through six measurable indicators with “demonstrable links to subjective well-being, and more specifically to life satisfaction”. These include: having someone to count on, GDP per capita, a healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption.

Some trends come as no surprise. In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 has made life particularly difficult for women there, who have an average wellbeing score of just 1.26.

Afghanistan is the bottom country on this year’s list, and is joined at the lower end largely by nations experiencing major political and social difficulties, including Sierra Leone, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Yemen, Lebanon, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Youth happiness crisis

Other results are less expected. Despite happiness levels increasing in central and eastern Europe – part of a convergence in European happiness levels that has been clear for more than a decade – the report found that most industrialised Western countries are now less happy than they were during a base period between 2005 and 2010.

The data also shows a sharp decline in life satisfaction among people under 25 over the past decade, particularly in English-speaking countries and Western Europe.

This “youth happiness crisis” was first mentioned in the 2024 World Happiness Report, but the 2026 edition highlights the specific link between social media use and decreased wellbeing among young people in the West.

“In North America and Western Europe, young people are much less happy than 15 years ago. Over the same period, social media use has greatly increased,” it noted.

What puts western youth at higher risk than their counterparts in other parts of the world is the amount of time they spent on social media platforms.

READ MORE‘Addiction is profitable’: Meta, Google stand trial over social media effects on children

Citing an OECD study, the report found that “those who use social media for over seven hours a day have much lower wellbeing than those who use it for less than one hour”.

It found heavy use of social media caused a wellbeing drop of almost a full point for girls in Western Europe and half a point for boys.

“Heavy users of social media are at risk, especially in English-speaking countries and Western Europe,” the authors wrote.

'Thoughtful regulation'

It seems that many young people are aware of the harm such platforms can cause. According to a Harris poll cited in the report, more than a third of users aged 18-27 wished that platforms including X, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram did not exist at all.

Social media companies are also aware that young people see their products as dangerous, with Gen Z users – born between 1997 and 2012 – perceiving “high levels of harm”, the report found.

In fact, the scale and scope of negative impacts is impossible to ignore. They are so widespread that the report warned social media is causing “harm at a population level”.

But a blanket ban might not be possible – or even advisable. While intensive social media use is associated with negative impacts, “those who voluntarily disconnect also seem to miss out on certain positive effects,” says report author Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, in a press release.

Instead the report calls for “thoughtful regulation of social media environments” that could “play a role in mitigating harmful effects”.

It expects teachers, parents and school administrators are likely to back the idea.

“The belief that social media and smartphones are harming students’ education and mental health is not isolated or fringe. It is the dominant perception among educators across many Western nations,” the report found.

This article was adapted by Joanna York. Click here to read the original in French.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Elon Musk misled shareholders during Twitter purchase, US jury finds

Tech multi-billionaire Elon Musk could be forced to pay billions of dollars in damages after a federal jury found that the world's richest man had misled Twitter shareholders while purchasing the social media platform by posting false statements to drive down the company's share price. The tycoon's lawyers said that Musk would appeal the decision.


Issued on: 21/03/2026 
FRANCE 24

Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 after months of back and forth with the social media company's board. © Josh Edelson, Getty Images North America via AFP
01:34

A federal jury in California found Friday that tech tycoon Elon Musk misled Twitter shareholders, driving down the company's share price as he was poised to buy it in a $44 billion deal. But the jury absolved him of some fraud allegations, finding that he did not “scheme” to mislead investors.

The verdict in the class action securities lawsuit means the world's richest person could be ordered to pay billions of dollars, according to damages calculated by jurors.

Minutes after the judgment was announced, the entrepreneur's lawyers informed AFP that their client will appeal the decision, characterising it as a "setback".

Police raid Paris offices of Musk's X over child sexual deepfakes

TRUTH OR FAKE © FRANCE 24
05:15

After a three-week trial in a San Francisco federal court – which included in-person testimony from Musk – the jury found that two tweets posted in May 2022 by the Tesla and SpaceX CEO contained false statements responsible for a plunge in Twitter's share price.

Investor Giuseppe Pampena had filed the suit on behalf of people who sold Twitter shares between mid-May and early October 2022.

Musk acquired the social media platform in late October 2022 and later renamed it X.

Jurors agreed that Musk violated a securities rule that bars false and misleading statements that sink a stock price, in this case that of Twitter, the verdict form showed.

The jury awarded shareholders between about $3 and $8 per stock per day as damages, which the plaintiffs' lawyers said amounts to about $2.1 billion in stock and another $500 million in options. Musk's fortune is currently estimated at about $814 billion, much of it tied up in Tesla shares.

“It’s an important victory, not just for investors of Twitter, but for the public markets,” said Mark Molumphy, an attorney for the plaintiffs. "I think the jury’s verdict sends a strong message that just because you’re a rich and powerful person, you still have to obey the law, and no man is above the law.”

Musk, who has a near-constant presence on X, did not immediately react to the verdict.
Teflon tycoon?

The judgment marks a rare legal defeat for Musk, often dubbed "Teflon Elon" for his ability to emerge unscathed from lawsuits he is expected to lose.

His lawyers, in fact, reminded AFP of this track record, noting that a Texas court cleared him just that same day in a separate defamation case.

In 2023, a jury in the same San Francisco federal court cleared him within hours of similar charges brought by Tesla shareholders, following his 2018 tweets claiming he had the funding to take the automaker private.

The civil complaint in California accused Musk of driving down Twitter's stock price to gain leverage to renegotiate the purchase price or get out of the deal completely, causing people who sold shares to lose money.

Musk tweeted at one point during the process that the acquisition deal was temporarily on hold until Twitter executives could prove the percentage of "bots" – fake accounts run by software instead of real users – was as low as the social media platform claimed.

The plaintiffs contended that these statements were part of a scheme designed to pressure the board of directors into accepting a price lower than his initial offer – at a time when Tesla's share price was falling, meaning Musk would have to sell more of his shares to finance the deal.

Tech 24 © France 24
05:27

Monte Mann, a business litigation lawyer who was not a part of the case, said the "verdict sends a clear message – if you move the market with your words, you own the consequences”.

“The law has always prohibited misleading statements. What’s new is the scale and speed," Mann said. "When one person can move billions with a tweet, the consequences of those statements are amplified – and juries are starting to take that seriously.”

Musk abandoned his effort to get out of buying Twitter in late 2022 after the company took him to court to uphold the contract.

Musk has since merged the social media platform with his artificial intelligence startup xAI and his private space exploration firm SpaceX.

Forbes magazine early this month estimated Elon Musk's net worth at $839 billion, a figure based primarily on his stakes in his portfolio of companies including Tesla and SpaceX.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)

French prosecutors suspect tycoon Musk encouraged deepfakes to inflate value of X

French prosecutors say they have alerted US authorities to a suspicion that tech billionaire Elon Musk encouraged sexualised deepfakes on social media platform X to "artificially" increase his company's value.


Issued on: 21/03/2026 - RFI

Elon Musk is the world's richest individual, but French prosecutors say the value of his company X may have been boosted artificially via deepfakes. REUTERS - Evelyn Hockstein

The Grok chatbot – developed by xAI and hosted on Musk's social media platform X – allows users to make nonconsensual sexualised deepfakes, including of women and children. The practice has triggered investigations in Europe and the UK.

"The controversy sparked by sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok may have been deliberately generated in order to artificially boost the value of companies X and X AI", the Paris prosecutor's office said Saturday.

This may have been done, it said, with a view to "the planned June 2026 stock market listing of the new entity created by the merger" between Space X and X AI.

It said it had reached out on Tuesday to the US Department of Justice, as well as French lawyers at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a financial market regulation body, to share its concerns.

On Monday this week three young women filed a lawsuit against xAI in a federal California court. They claim the company facilitated child pornography by allowing the creation of sexually explicit images of them.

In February, the data protection watchdog in Ireland – where X's European HQ is based – launched a probe into Grok's generation of sexualised deepfake images.

Ireland watchdog opens probe into sexual AI imagery from Grok chatbot

Mounting investigations

Since last year, the French authorities have been investigating X over allegations that its algorithm was used to interfere in French politics.

It now also includes a probe into the Grok AI tool's dissemination of Holocaust denials and sexual deepfakes.

French authorities last month summoned Musk to a "voluntary interview" and searched the local offices of his social media network, in what Musk called a "political attack".

US officials have strongly condemned the enquiry.

In a separate case, a US federal judge on Friday found Musk misled Twitter shareholders, driving down the company's share price as he was poised to buy it in a $44 billion deal in 2022.

US jury finds Elon Musk misled Twitter shareholders

Musk was accused of falsely claiming on social media that Twitter (which he rebranded X) underreported how many fake and spam accounts, known as bots, were on its platform.

Damages have yet to be calculated but Francis Bottini, a lawyer for the shareholders, estimated they could total about $2.5 billion.

(with newswires)

French jihadist jailed for life for Islamic State crimes against Yazidis

Paris (France) (AFP) – A French jihadist was sentenced to life in jail on Friday for involvement in Islamic State group atrocities against Iraq's Yazidi minority, the first case in France to tackle the issue.


Issued on: 20/03/2026 - RFI

An image grab from a video reportedly released by IS and showing French jihadist Sabri Essid. © - / AL-FURQAN MEDIA/AFP/File

The Paris Assizes Court found Sabri Essid guilty in absentia of genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity in the crimes, committed between 2014 and 2016 when the jihadists occupied swathes of northern Syria and Iraq.

"Sabri Essid took part in the genocide perpetrated by Islamic State," presiding judge Marc Sommerer told the court.

"Essid became part of the criminal network repeatedly buying and reselling a very large number of Yazidi victims," he said, adding the court judged that the group had "specifically targeted" the Yazidi minority for its religious beliefs.

The Islamic State group regarded the Yazidis, who follow a pre-Islamic faith, as heretics.

Essid, a Frenchman born in 1984 and who joined IS in Syria in 2014, is presumed to have been killed in 2018. But without proof of his death, he was tried and convicted in absentia.

He is accused of buying several Yazidi women at markets and then repeatedly raping them, as well as depriving them of water and food.

IS seized large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, declaring a so-called caliphate there.

In August of that year, they murdered thousands of Yazidi men in Iraq's Sinjar province and took into Syria thousands of women and girls to sell them in markets as sex slaves to be abused by jihadists from around the world.

United Nations investigators have qualified these actions as genocide.

France begins landmark trial over Islamic State genocide of Yazidis
'Genocidal policy'

On Thursday, a Yazidi woman who was sold by IS as a sex slave described in stark detail to the Paris court the horrors she endured under jihadist captivity in Syria.

She said she was raped almost daily by her first two owners – a married Saudi man and then Essid. She was resold to six other men before escaping with her daughter and walking through the night to reach a post manned by Kurdish forces.

Sommerer said on Thursday he had overseen several trials for crimes against humanity but had "never heard before" the atrocities endured by the woman, whose name AFP is withholding to protect her privacy.

Known in Syria as Abu Dojanah al-Faransi, Essid was thought to be close to Jean-Michel and Fabien Clain.

The Clain brothers, now believed to be dead, claimed responsibility on behalf of IS for France's worst ever jihadist attacks in Paris in 2015.

Lawyers had earlier stressed the significance of the Essid trial.

"Given that in the past Islamic State fighters believed to be dead have resurfaced, it is essential that this trial take place," said Patrick Baudouin, a lawyer for France's Human Rights League.

"It is essential that it shed light on the particularly grave abuses committed against civilian populations and in particular the genocidal policy implemented against the Yazidi population," said Clemence Bectarte, a lawyer representing three Yazidi women survivors and their eight children

Trials throughout Europe

After Essid went to Syria, his wife, their three children and her son from a previous relationship joined him.

In an IS propaganda video released in 2015, Essid is seen pushing his 12-year-old stepson to shoot a Palestinian hostage in the head.

His wife has been jailed since returning to France.

Similar trials have taken place elsewhere in Europe.

In 2021, a German court issued the first ruling worldwide to recognise crimes against the Yazidi community as genocide.

It sentenced an Iraqi man to life in jail on charges that he chained a five-year-old Yazidi girl "house slave" outdoors in heat of up to 50C as punishment for wetting her mattress, leading her to die of thirst.

Last month, a Swedish court convicted a 52-year-old woman of genocide for keeping Yazidi women and children as slaves in Syria in 2015.

US-backed forces eventually defeated the IS proto-state in 2019, though isolated cells still operate in the Syrian desert.

Hussein Qaidi, who heads the Kidnapped Yazidi Rescue Office, told AFP last year that IS had abducted 6,416 Yazidis, more than half of whom had since been rescued.

Why the Sahel is now the world’s deadliest region for terrorism

The Sahel has become the world’s most deadly region for terrorism, with nearly half of all global deaths now taking place there. This marks a long-term shift away from the Middle East and North Africa, recent data shows.


Issued on: 20/03/2026 - RFI

The Tarikom camp in Ghana has a majority of women and children who fled jihadist violence in Burkina Faso. © RFI / Victor Cariou

By: Melissa Chemam


The Global Terrorism Index 2026, compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace, said the region has led global figures for three consecutive years. Data from ACLED, a group that tracks conflict and violence worldwide, also point to high levels of violence across the Sahel.

"The epicentre of terrorism has shifted from the Middle East and North Africa, into the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa," the index said this week – adding "the Sahel has suffered a tenfold increase in terrorism fatalities since 2007".

In 2024, more than half of the 7,555 global deaths linked to terrorism were recorded in the Sahel. The trend continued in 2025, with nearly half of the 5,582 fatalities taking place there.

The index ranked 163 countries using data on attacks, deaths, injuries and hostages. It also noted that total fatalities in the region fell compared to the previous year.

The Sahel stretches along the southern edge of the Sahara desert, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, and includes countries such as Mauritania, Mali, Niger, northern Nigeria, Chad and Sudan.

The Chief of staff of the Burkina Faso armed forces, colonel-major David Kabre attends the annual US led-FLINTLOOK military training closing ceremony at the International Counter-Terrorism Academy in Jacqueville in Ivory Coats on 14 March, 2023. AFP - ISSOUF SANOGO

Armed groups expanding

"The central Sahel countries were not only ranked in the top five but also experienced 12 of the 20 deadliest attacks globally," Heni Nsaibia, senior analyst for West Africa at ACLED, told RFI.

The rise in violence is largely linked to the growing presence of jihadist groups and changes in how they operate. Most attacks are attributed to Islamic State affiliates and JNIM, an Al-Qaeda-linked group active in Burkina Faso.

JNIM has shifted its focus towards targeting soldiers rather than civilians and has expanded operations in areas such as western and southern Mali.

"Both JNIM and Islamic State – Sahel Province (ISSP) have expanded in Niger’s southern Dosso region and into Nigeria, while Benin experienced its deadliest year to date as a result of JNIM’s violent activities," Nsaibia said – adding that the figures do not fully capture how the conflict is evolving.

"Numbers only tell a part of the story."

Burkina Faso filmmaker takes story of women resisting jihadists to Oscars

Different ways of counting violence can lead to different totals, Nsaibia explained, because some datasets include all forms of political or organised violence, such as battles, air strikes and drone attacks.

"While it is true that fatalities have generally declined and the number of violent deaths is a key measure of conflict, other observable dynamics must also be considered," he said.

"In 2025, there has been an all-time high in kidnappings of foreigners in both Mali and Niger. Economic warfare and its ramifications have become defining features, militant activities have increased in and around major population centers, and the use of drone warfare by non-state armed groups has proliferated."
Regional shifts

Twenty years ago, the Sahel accounted for just one percent of global terrorism deaths.

Burkina Faso, previously the most affected country, saw fatalities fall 45 percent in 2025 to 846, mainly due to an 84 percent drop in civilian casualties, the terrorism index found.

Niger rose to third place, with 703 deaths, more than half of them civilians, while Nigeria ranked fourth with 750 deaths, up 46 percent from the previous year.

Benin and Nigeria join forces to fight growing cross-border terrorism

"This marks the highest death toll since 2020, driven by internal instability as well as ongoing conflict between ISWAP and Boko Haram," the index said.

Mali dropped to fifth place, with 341 deaths compared to 604 the previous year.

The spread of violence has also reached coastal West Africa, particularly Benin, which rose to 19th place on the index.

"Benin also appears on the list and is now exposed to conflict dynamics similar to those observed for years among its northern neighbours," Nsaibia said.
Global picture

Worldwide, deaths linked to terrorism fell 28 percent in 2025 to 5,582, while the number of attacks dropped nearly 22 percent to 2,944.

Only 19 countries recorded worsening conditions, the lowest number since the index began, although several Western countries were among them.

Pakistan became the most affected country in 2025, overtaking Burkina Faso.

Spotlight on Africa: West African countries step up cooperation against spreading jihadist violence

"Deaths from terrorism in Pakistan are now at their highest level since 2013, with the country recording 1,139 terrorism deaths and 1,045 incidents in 2025," the index said.

"This follows a sharp resurgence in terrorist activity driven in part by the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan in 2021," it added.

Nsaibia said global crises may be drawing attention away from Africa.

"A concern is that geopolitical changes and successive conflicts and wars elsewhere in the world have diverted attention from Africa in general and the Sahel in particular."

He also warned about the broader impact of violence. "The growing disregard for harm against civilians in the Sahel, in Africa but also globally is to him the biggest concern."

Iran issues global threat as Israel's regime kill list grows with help from the inside

Copyright AP Photo

By Peter Barabas & Babak Kamiar

Published on 20/03/2026 - EURONEWS

Israel eliminated three top Iranian commanders on Friday as it continues its relentless strikes on Tehran's repression forces, with help from ordinary Iranians who are rising up against the regime.

Israel continued its intense strike campaign against the Iranian regime's security forces on Friday by killing the spokesman of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ali Mohammad Naini, the intelligence chief and deputy commander of the Basij forces, Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam as well as the commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, Mehdi Ghorishi, the Iranian media and Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF) announced on Friday.

Ali Mohammad Naini was known to be the IRGC's main propagandist, while Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam was described as a main pillar of the Basij force, "with a central role in suppressing protests," Israel said.

Additionally, as Israel keeps pounding the regime forces across Iran, the IRGC in Iran's East Azerbaijan Province announced that 12 Basij members were killed in a strike in Tabriz on Thursday.

Shortly after these announcements, Iran's top military spokesman, General Abolfazl Shekarchi warned that "parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations" worldwide won't be safe for Tehran's enemies, renewing concerns that Iran could stage attacks beyond the Middle East.

"From now on, based on the information we have about you, even parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations anywhere in the world will no longer be safe for you," Shekarchi said in a statement quoted by Iranian state television on Friday, which is set to trigger renewed alarms across European security agencies. Qatar and the UAE announced that their security agencies dismantled Iranian operatives cells after the start of the war.

Related

• Iran hangs three men, including 19-year-old wrestler, in first executions over January protests

Since the war began, monitors estimate that up to a third of strikes have eliminated scores of IRGC and Basij personnel in a relentless campaign of precision strikes to break the regime's complex security establishment responsible for the brutal crackdown on protests, and apparently to support regime opponents to return to the streets.

The Basij units, also known as the regime's moral police, are a paramilitary force of volunteers tasked with enforcing loyalty to Iran's theocratic rulers across the country. They are linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) which is the backbone of the Iranian regime's security force, responsible for killing and injuring hundreds of opposition protesters before the war.

Member of the Basij paramilitary force attend a rally in Tehran, 28 March, 2025 AP Photo

Basij checkpoints have proliferated across Tehran since the war started. One resident told the Associated Press that there were five or six new checkpoints in his neighbourhood alone and that the Basij forces search vehicles for weapons, examine documents and sometimes demand to look at people’s phones. By manning checkpoints, the Basij helps security agencies to focus on information gathering and arrests.

The strikes on checkpoints began on 11 March, with at least 15 incidents on a single day documented by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a US-based monitoring group, quoted by AP.

Social media accounts observed by Euronews since the war started show that ordinary Iranian citizens have been sharing films or photographs of the Basij checkpoints or military hideouts, posting locators, photos or videos on social media in a form of opposition following the regime's violent crackdown on the widespread protests preceding the war.

Members of the Iranian Basij paramilitary force march in Tehran, 10 January, 2025 AP Photo

Despite the nationwide internet blackout imposed by the regime, Israel is reportedly gathering some of the targeting intelligence from the videos and photos by ordinary Iranians who often tag the Farsi account of the Israeli military, sometimes in the name of protesters who were killed in the area.

According to insiders in Iran Euronews spoke to at the time, as many as 32,000 people were reportedly killed by mid-January after Tehran responded with violence to growing country-wide unrest originally sparked in December by hyperinflation and the cost of living, but then grew into major anti-regime demonstrations.

Euronews' Persian service observed that a phrase has been trending on Iranian social media saying that every drone that hits a Basij checkpoint "gladdens the souls of dozens of Javid-nam" in reference to the victims of January repression. It also suggests that these strikes provide new momentum and renewed hope for the protest movement.

In a recent move, Israeli intelligence has started appealing to Iranians to keep posting the locators of the regime forces. One of the Israeli messages says: "Don't underestimate your power. One more location, one less Basij dog. Start sending."

Residents say security forces still have an intimidating presence in Tehran. War monitors say an intensified crackdown that began with the crushing of January’s nationwide protests continues, often targeting those who take videos of strikes or try to get around a weekslong internet blackout to contact the outside world.

The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, a U.S.-based group, said people have been rounded up for taking pictures identifying the location of checkpoints, bases and military installations, AP reported. Authorities are also still detaining people linked to the January protests, former political prisoners or members of minorities.

The rights group said it had reports of security forces opening fire at checkpoints. In one incident, two teenage brothers were shot and killed after honking their car horn in celebration of the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the war's opening salvo.

Nevertheless, over the last days, new videos from Tehran surfaced on social media showing the Basij and IRGC units hiding under bridges, in tunnels and even in empty schools and kindergartens to evade Israeli strikes.

In a recent video, a group of Basij fighters appear to hide under a bridge in Tehran waving a white flag.

Another video from Tehran appears to show security forces changing uniforms to avoid being identified from the air.

The Israeli Defence Force keeps releasing cockpit videos of its airstrikes on the Basij and IRGC forces to show its rate of action, while ordinary citizens continue posting videos showing the aftermath of the Israeli airstrikes.

On Friday, Iranians posted the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on a Basij compound in Semnan.

As Israel's strikes are dismantling the Iranian regime's security system and in growing signs of defiance, social media videos out of Tehran over the last days showed scores of Iranians celebrating the yearly Chaharshanbe Suri, an ancient Persian festival, which is consistently opposed by the regime as young Iranians often use the occasion to protest..

In videos released from the Chitgar neighborhood in western Tehran, security forces can be seen entering an apartment complex with a large convoy of vehicles while residents chant slogans and gunshots can also be heard.

According to the Associated Press, the Basij, Farsi for "mobilization," has tens of thousands of volunteers under the command of the Revolutionary Guard, being engaged in ideological and political activities, with branches in schools, universities, government institutions and other organizations.

Volunteers, both men and women, work to ensure loyalty to the Islamic Republic which include holding religious lectures or harassing those who flout social restrictions, but they can also be mobilized for state-organized events, including counterprotests.

District-level paramilitary units deploy in times of domestic unrest — like the January protests — armed with everything from batons and electroshock devices to live ammunition.

Iranians describe mass text messages warning against protests while aggressive Basij patrols operate in Tehran, AP reports. On Thursday, Iran announced the execution of three men detained in the January protests, the first such sentences known to have been carried out.

Members of the Iranian Basij paramilitary force march during the force parade in Tehran, 10 January, 2025 AP Photo

In the last week, semiofficial news outlets have reported the arrest of more than 100 people across Iran, most accused of conspiring with enemy states or sharing media reports with foreign entities. At least 14 were accused of possessing Starlink internet dishes or virtual private network cards. Starlink has been one of the only ways to access the global internet since the unprecedented blackout began on January 8.

The government has also reportedly shut down parts of Iran’s internal internet and revoked some VPN cards given to people with specialized jobs.