Name: Iran War Update | CNN Reports From On Ground In Iran Amidst The Chaos | Trump-Netanyahu | N18G
Uploaded: 2026-03-21T23:02:24.000Z
Duration: 10 min 8 s
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Okay, we're hearing jets overhead, there's anti aircraft cars going off.

Sentences with advanced comparative

They told us we gotta get out of here as fast as possible.

For more than a decade, my colleague Claudia Otto and I have been coming to Iran.

Reporting from the Islamic Republic is never easy.

But facing an open ended American and Israeli military campaign, the Iranian government is now up against maybe its biggest challenge since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and

maybe even the Iran Iraq War starting in 19.

This trip in the opening days of America and Israel's war would prove to be harder than most.

It looks like a chimney though, doesn't it?

With Iran's airspace closed, we drive for two days from Armenia approaching Tehran in the early morning hours.

CNN was the first Western broadcast media outlet granted visas since the war began.

Reporting in Iran during a time of war is complicated.

We have full editorial control over what we publish, but need permission anytime we want to film.

And so getting the perspective of everyday Iranians can be complicated.

There are a lot of bombings and of course it's also quite scary when you hear jets going overhead, you hear bombs dropping, and

you hope that you're not in the vicinity of something that's getting hit.

So certainly a very difficult situation for the folks who live here in Tehran.

And many are telling us that they're basically just trying to get by.

The Masala mosque is where, after Friday prayers, hardline Iranians gather to rally in support of the government.

of course we also have to keep in mind this is just a small snapshot of Iran's society.

And many of the people who come here are of course, political and religious hardliners.

Shia Muslims strike their heads in ritual mourning for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's late supreme leader, killed in an Israeli airstrike.

But it's not just America and Israel that threaten the theocratic rule.

This war comes just months after the government crushed massive nationwide demonstrations, leaving thousands of protesters dead, as even the authorities themselves acknowledge.

As night sets in, a black cloud rises over the city.

By daybreak, oily water rains down on Tehran.

Israel has struck several major oil depots on the edge of the city.

There were air raids going on, I would say for about an hour and a half last night.

And you could really hear big impact in various parts of the city, especially the south, the east and the west.

And then we saw that thick smoke in the night sky.

And I'm going to show you above us, you can see that there is black cloud still going overhead.

And one other thing I want to show you as well.

So you can really see rained this morning in Tehran, and

the rain seemed to be saturated with oil as well.

You can see there's this black soot that's inside the rainwater.

It's an absolutely apocalyptic scene here.

We've just made it to the Shahran Oil Depot, which was attacked last night in a massive wave of airstrikes.

We heard those going on for about an hour and a half with massive thuds and then explosions that we could hear.

We saw that last night, and now we're actually seeing it up close.

What we're also seeing is that some of those destroyed storage tanks are still on fire.

There's still flames originating from them.

You can also see here that the area around here is also completely destroyed.

There's people here actually working on this electricity pole to try and get the electricity back.

Israel says it struck the oil depot to, quote, deepen the damage to Iran's military infrastructure.

In the hours after the attack, the Trump administration expressed dismay at the bombing.

Health authorities say the acid rain we were also subjected to can cause skin and lung damage.

We meet the former foreign minister and now foreign policy adviser to the office of the Supreme Leader, Kamal Harazi.

I don't see any room for diplomacy anymore because Donald Trump had been deceiving others and not keeping his promises.

And we experienced it in two times of negotiations that while we were engaged in negotiation, they struck us.

Do you consider this an existential threat to the Islamic Republic?

It is an existential threat to the Islamic Republic, and

therefore, we have to say with full might, the proof is in the pudding.

What is important for us is the end of this game, and

Every night, the sound of warplanes reverberates across the city, followed by explosives explosions that shake the windows of our hotel.

Where we are right now is the east of Tehran, and

the authorities say there was a massive airstrike that hit a residential building.

the reason why the authorities have told us to actually wear masks when we're here on the ground is they say that obviously this is kicking up a lot of dust, and

so it's better to wear a mask just to be protected.

The blast from the bombs that hit this area were so strong that it not only destroyed these buildings, but

that it also damaged severely a lot of the buildings on the other side of the street.

As the bombing campaign drags on day by day, airstrike by airstrike, we can feel and hear the anger among those affected build up, also directed at us as we're viewed as media from Iran's enemy state, the US.

Some of the survivors of this airstrike are clearly still in a state of shock.

As we continue filming, we hear the roar of a jet overhead, then anti aircraft fire.

They told us we got to get out of here as fast as possible.

There was just a big explosion around here.

So that just goes to show how fast things can turn bad here.

Reports on social media suggest the airstrikes we witnessed targeted a base of the besieged paramilitary group impacting surrounding civilian housing.

For the first time in more than 40 years, the future of the Islamic Republic seems deeply uncertain.

There is long standing and widespread discontent with government corruption and mismanagement.

But if President Trump hoped that his airstrikes would lead to a quick and easy transition of power, a pro American revolution from the streets, it seems he'll be disappointed.

Meanwhile, Iranians on those streets are hoping for a respite and for President Trump to focus elsewhere.

Better look to the US Population because you, your country, more than our country, have a problem about economy, about anything.