Iran’s gamble with human lives… mobilizing the population for death while volunteers build a rescue map

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As the clock approaches 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Washington time, Iran’s skies are turning into a waiting room for a potential “hell.”

US President Donald Trump has given the Iranian regime a final deadline expiring at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Washington time.

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An ultimatum that leaves Iran with a choice: reach an agreement allowing the resumption of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, or face a “hell” that would return the country to the “Stone Age,” as Trump has repeatedly stated, most recently during his press conference yesterday at the White House.

Trump said: “We have a plan, thanks to the strength of our military, whereby every bridge in Iran will be destroyed by midnight tomorrow; every power station in Iran will be taken offline, will burn, explode, and will never be used again. I mean total destruction by midnight, and it can happen within four hours if we want it to.”

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Human shields

On the other side, the faltering regime in Tehran has decided not to face this “hell” alone and has resorted to using its citizens as human shields.

Regime-affiliated media outlets, including Tasnim and Fars News, funded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, began urging Iranians to gather and remain near vital facilities, particularly power stations and fuel depots, in order to prevent the US president from attacking them due to the presence of civilians.

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Fars News stated in a report: “Infrastructure, including power plants and refineries, constitutes national property belonging to the entire society, and its protection represents a collective responsibility, especially amid rising threats.”

The call to use the population as human shields reached an official level when Ali Reza Rahimi, deputy to Iran’s Minister of Youth and Sports, called on Monday evening for citizens, especially young people, to participate in public gatherings in front of power stations across the country.

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A hell without warning

While the Iranian regime mobilizes citizens in front of potential strikes, it leaves them in a dense informational blackout.

The ongoing war since late February, along with Trump’s threats, comes as Iran experiences the longest internet shutdown in modern history, according to NetBlocks, a global internet connectivity monitoring organization.

Moreover, Iran has no advanced civilian missile warning system, according to WIRED, a global outlet specializing in technology, security, innovation, and digital policy.

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Volunteers filling the state’s vacuum

In the complete absence of the state’s role in protecting citizens’ lives, Iranian volunteers, some inside the country and others in the diaspora, have stepped in to fill the gap.

The Mahsa Alert platform, named after Mahsa Amini, whose death sparked mass protests in 2022, is a website and mobile application for Android and iOS, designed to be lightweight and easy to use even during internet outages.

In this regard, Ahmad Ahmadian, president and CEO of the US-based organization Holistic Resilience, focused on digital rights and behind Mahsa Alert, explained: “There is no emergency alert system in Iran. We saw the momentum and the need, so we continued working with volunteers and experts, using this platform to map the system of repression and surveillance in Iran.”

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The application operates through crowdsourcing, collecting reports from citizens about bombing and attack locations, which are then verified by a team of volunteers and open-source intelligence experts.

The team also marks potential “danger zones,” such as nuclear and military sites, warning civilians not to approach them.

According to Ahmadian, his team has documented more than 3,000 reports so far, and he says that 90 percent of confirmed attacks targeted locations already marked on the map.

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Due to the nationwide internet shutdown, the application was designed to function offline, with small updates not exceeding 100 kilobytes that can be downloaded during brief connectivity windows.

Ahmadian noted that the application grew from zero to more than 100,000 daily active users within days, with indicators showing that 28 percent of users are connecting from inside Iran.

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