Grainy security camera footage of an explosion at Evin prison in Iran.

TEHRAN’S notorious Evin Prison has been blitzed by an Israeli airstrike, according to officials

A drone is thought to have blown up the jail’s gates in an effort free the regime’s fiercest critics.

Grainy security camera footage of an explosion at Evin prison in Iran.
Evin Prison is notorious for holing up political prisonersCredit: Twitter
Low-quality video of smoke billowing near a building.
Footage appears to show a major explosion at its gates, and the IDF announced it had struckCredit: Twitter
Fire-damaged interior of Evin prison in Tehran, Iran.
A dingy workshop inside the walls of Evin PrisonCredit: AP
Map showing Evin Prison's location north of Tehran, near the Alborz Mountains.

The prison is notorious for shackling political prisoners, journalists and even Brits on bogus charges.

Footage shows a missile shooting directly into the gate, sending mangled bits of metal flying.

Isareli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly called for Iran’s people to rise up against the regime.

Busting out its ardent critics could be an attempt fan the flames of rebellion, by returning anti-Ayatollah activists to the streets.

The IDF confirmed the attack, stating: “Under the directive of PM Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz, the IDF is targeting regime and security locations in central Tehran, including the Basij headquarters, Evin Prison, the ‘Israel destruction clock,’ and IRGC internal security headquarters, among other sites.”

Some political prisoners have been banged up in the hellhole for decades.

Reports on the horrific conditions have come from those who manage to make it out.

Marziyeh Amirizadeh, 43, spent 259 days in Evin, Iran’s most notorious prison, where British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was also held.

Here, Marziyeh reveals the horror she endured – and how she rebuilt her life after her release as told to Kate Graham.

Evin Prison, located in northern Tehran, was established in 1972 during the late years of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s rule, just before the Shah was overthrown during the Islamic Revolution.

The Sun reports from inside as Israel as tensions flare following US air strikes

During that period, the prison was managed by his notorious security service, SAVAK, who were infamous for their brutal torture and assassination of the Shah’s political rivals.

And when the Ayatollah Khomeni took control of Iran, the violence at Evin continued and even escalated.

In the 1980s, tens of thousands of dissidents from one rebel group — the People’s Mujahidin of Iran — were hanged in Evin, in one of the most savage political mass killings in modern history.

Nowadays, anyone who speaks out against the regime in Iran can find themselves behind Evin’s deeply fortified walls.

Bloggers, teachers and academics are arrested in the middle of the night and thrown in Evin’s squalid cells after being convicted of questionable crimes without proper legal defence.

There are said to be so many intellectuals in one wing of the prison that it’s earned the dark nickname “Evin University”.

No prisoner has ever been known to escape.

Illustration of the Midnight Hammer operation, showing the path of US bombers and other aircraft in a strike against Iran.

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