Iran imposes internet blackout after Israel, U.S. strikes on Tehran

Iran was plunged into an internet blackout on Saturday after Israel and the United States launched military strikes across the country, according to a global internet watcher.

Hours after the strikes – which officials said targeted infrastructure and killed dozens of senior regime officials at a compound in Tehran – NetBlocks CEO Alp Toker confirmed that connectivity had started to “stagnate”.

“We are monitoring the ongoing blackout, but our assessment is that this is straight out of Iran’s war playbook and is consistent both technically and strategically with what we saw during the Twelve Day War with Israel in 2025,” Toker told Fox News Digital.

“Iran’s internet connectivity is now stagnating around the 1% level, so the initial blackout imposed by the regime in the morning has been consolidated,” he confirmed.

“The blackout was imposed just after 7:00 UTC, shortly after the attack on the Iranian regime compound,” Toker said, adding that Iran was largely offline for about 12 hours after the attack.

“At 06:10 UTC, there is the main compound strike; at 07:10 UTC, telecommunications disruption begins; at 08:00 UTC, the power outage is largely in effect; and at 08:30 UTC, landline connectivity.”

“National blackouts during wartime are extremely rare in the world, and it’s something we’ve only seen on this scale in Iran,” he said.

President Donald Trump is monitoring U.S. military operations in Iran following an Israeli strike in Tehran on Saturday, February 28, 2026. (@MaisonBlanche/X)

Following the attack, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the “heavy, localized” bombing in Iran “will continue uninterrupted throughout the week or as long as necessary to achieve our goal of PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND, REALLY, THE WORLD!”

He claimed that Iranian security forces and members of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were already seeking immunity. He urged them to “peacefully merge with Iranian patriots.”

“We are hearing that a large number of members of the IRGC, military and other security and police forces no longer want to fight and are seeking immunity from us,” Trump said in his message. “As I said last night: ‘Now they can get immunity; later they will only get death!'”

Toker argued that the timing of the power cut suggested it was imposed deliberately as the regime sought to secure communications, fearing further targeting.

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TEHRAN, IRAN – FEBRUARY 28: Smoke rises above the city center after an Israeli army launched a second wave of airstrikes on Iran on February 28, 2026. (Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images) (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“The Iranian regime will have deployed this new blackout to counter possible cyberattacks during its own military operation, but also to avoid disclosing the location of senior regime officials through metadata and user-generated content,” he said.

“Communications would have been limited, and Iranian leaders would have assumed that all communications, including satellite or whitelisted networks, carried risks,” he said before asserting that “paranoia would be well-founded at this point, with the blackout being a late but direct response to that.”

“Those who participate directly would already know to avoid technologies that could betray their location,” Toker said.

“However, metadata may well have played a role in determining whether the meeting of regime leaders was held within the Tehran compound, who was present and at what time.”

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In this image provided by the Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the nation during a state television broadcast June 18, 2025 in Tehran, Iran. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran via Getty Images)

Toker revealed that the wider network around the regime’s leaders and around the compound would not have been subject to the same strict restrictions.

“This type of adjacent ‘background noise’ can be correlated with other intelligence sources to provide a better understanding of activity on the ground,” he added.

“Smartphones are an easily accessible, almost ‘free’ source of intelligence, and even when locked, they end up connecting to international online services and generating information that can be used to identify regime figures,” Toker said.

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“Following Saturday’s attack, this concern will have been very much on the minds of Iran’s remaining leaders, especially if they did not have a clear understanding of how the meeting had been compromised.”

Iran has previously imposed massive internet shutdowns during periods of domestic unrest, including nationwide protests in January that left thousands dead, often seeking to curb the spread of information and restrict coordination.

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