TEHRAN — A U.S. airstrike on March 18 killed six members of the Rostami-Kialha family, including 20-day-old infant Mohammad Ali Kialha, in Tehran's Pirouzi neighborhood. The strike hit an apartment building where two related households had gathered for a visit.

An airstrike hit Hannaneh’s apartment building on March 18 while Mehdi Rostami’s family was visiting. The attack killed Hannaneh Rostami and her two children: Mohammad Hassan Kialha, 7, and Mohammad Ali Kialha, 20 days old. It also killed Mehdi Rostami, his wife Manzar al-Sadat Zarrabadi, and their three children: Ali, 13; Fatemeh, 9; and Zeynab, 7.

Mohammad Ali Kialha was born on February 26 in Tehran. His father, Ali, had suggested that his wife Hannaneh and their children move to Qazvin for safety. Ali survived the airstrike because he was out at the time of the attack.

Tahereh Sarbaz, the grandmother of the infant, had traveled from Qazvin to Tehran to meet her newborn grandson. She visited her son Mehdi Rostami in northern Tehran before returning to Qazvin. On March 17, she spoke with Hannaneh by phone. While driving through Tehran, she witnessed destruction and felt a blast wave.

The Pirouzi neighborhood is home to around 600,000 people. Dr. Nader Azadeh, an official with the Tehran Fire Department, coordinated emergency response operations in the area after the attack. A rescue worker estimated that 30 people died in the building collapse caused by the airstrike. Rescue workers located the body of infant Mohammad Ali Kialha hours after initially exhuming other victims.

The Israel Defense Forces announced it killed Mehdi Rostami Shamastam, one of the key commanders in Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran on March 18. President Donald Trump wrote on social media on February 28, "Bombs will be dropping everywhere." He later wrote on Truth Social on March 7, "Today Iran will be hit very hard! Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time."

A U.S. defense official stated, "The U.S. military takes all reports of civilian harm seriously. All allegations of civilian harm reported to CENTCOM have been reviewed." A U.S. Central Command spokesperson stated, "We have no new updates at this time pertaining to current investigations or munitions that were expended during Operation Epic Fury." Adm. Brad Cooper, chief of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in May, "There is one active civilian casualty investigation from the 13,629 munitions."

Iran’s Health Ministry states that U.S. strikes have killed or wounded more than 650 people since a June ceasefire collapsed and the U.S. resumed attacks. World Health Organization estimates state that tens of thousands more people were killed or wounded in U.S.–Israeli strikes in the weeks following February 28. A funeral procession for Mohammad Ali Kialha took place in Qazvin, Iran on March 23.