Strike kills four-person family in Arak — 3-day-old infant and 2-year-old among dead

A US-Israeli airstrike struck a residential home in Arak, the capital of Markazi Province in central Iran, killing four members of a single family: a three-day-old infant, his two-year-old sister, their mother, and their grandmother. The IRGC cited the killings via Press TV; Al Jazeera confirmed in its Day 18 key events summary. The deaths represent one of the most stark individual civilian casualty incidents of the 18-day conflict — four generations of a family killed in a single strike on a residential address. No military target in the immediate vicinity was specified at time of reporting. Arak is an industrial city housing Iran's former IR-40 heavy water research reactor (modified under the 2015 JCPOA) and multiple defense and petrochemical facilities. The incident was cited by Iranian President Pezeshkian in his defense of Iran's right to self-defense, saying 'Iran did not start the war and will not surrender to bullies.'

Key facts

• •Strike kills 3-day-old infant, 2-year-old sister, mother, and grandmother in Arak
• •Four family members killed in single residential strike — one of the starkest civilian casualty incidents of the conflict
• •IRGC cited killings via Press TV; Al Jazeera Day 18 summary confirmed
• •No military target specified in immediate vicinity
• •President Pezeshkian cited civilian deaths defending Iran's right to self-defense