Iranians in Bloomington demonstrate in support of strikes targeting Tehran regime

Mid-afternoon Sunday (March 1), on the southwest corner of the courthouse square in downtown Bloomington, around three dozen Bloomington residents of Iranian descent gathered, some waving U.S. flags, others the green-white-and-red “Lion and Sun” version of the Iranian flag.

They were celebrating the military action by U.S. and Israeli forces, which was a wave of airstrikes across Iran, beginning the day before on Saturday (Feb. 28). The strikes targeted military and government sites in Tehran and elsewhere.

The attacks, which were ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump, are intended to force a change in the country’s leadership, which has been in place since the 1979 revolution, according to Associated Press reports.

The flag held aloft by demonstrators features a golden lion holding a sword with a sun rising behind it in the center, symbolizing Iran’s pre-1979 imperial history, monarchy, and ancient Persian identity.

Demonstrators on Sunday look to exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi, son of the last shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, as the leader of the resistance to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader. Khamenei was killed in Saturday’s air strikes, according to AP reports.

Among the Bloomington demonstrators, one woman held a sign that included in all-caps at the top: “Thank you to the brave men and women of the United States and Israel.” The sign continued its thanks “to those who stood with the Iranian people—and not with the criminal Islamic regime—you chose truth when it was not easy.”

The operation has already damaged key naval and military assets, according to AP reports. The AP is describing the military action as a “war,” even without a formal declaration by the U.S. Congress.

One couple who were demonstrating, Bloomington residents of Iranian descent, described the event as a show of support for the possibility of regime change and a freer future for people in Iran. “We’re Iranian,” said the woman: “We’re celebrating. This gives us hope for our country to be freed from this tyrannical regime.” She continued, “The killing of Khamenei … is not an attack on the people. It's an attack on the regime.”

Iran started retaliation immediately in a campaign that continued into Sunday, according to AP reports. Explosions shook Tehran on Sunday as Israeli and U.S. forces struck additional targets, and Iran escalated its counterattacks, widening the confrontation across the region and raising fears of broader war.

U.S. service members have been killed in the operation, and Iran reported civilian deaths from strikes, including an attack on a school for girls, according to reporting by The Guardian.

Demonstrators on the courthouse square on Sunday pointed to the lethal response by the Khamenei regime to a wave of domestic protests that began last year around Dec. 28 over the country’s ailing economy, then morphed into a direct challenge to the Islamic Republic. In connection with those events of recent months, they described the killing of 40,000 protestors by Khamenei. On several occasions in recent months, they have been out on the courthouse square demonstrating.

One demonstrator stood separate from the main group of Iranian participants, holding a sign dissenting from the general support for military action. It read: “The Madness of King Don.”

About their support for the military action, the woman interviewed by The B Square said: “This is not necessarily an endorsement of Trump,” She added, “We do celebrate this action—action separated from person.” Her husband said he wanted to make clear that Iranians distinguish between the people of the United States and the U.S. government, and that they draw a similar distinction between the Iranian people and the Iranian regime.

“Iranian people, they want to have a good relationship with U.S. people, [and] Israeli people,” he said. “But [the] regime wants to have an enemy with America.” He said, “For 47 years, they have been chanting ‘Death to America,’ but that’s not the people.”

Trump has said he is willing to talk to the new leadership of Iran, in the wake of Khamenei’s death. According to AP reports, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that a new leadership council has begun its work.

But demonstrators in Bloomington are looking to the crown prince Pahlavi as the person who should be acknowledged by the people of Iran and other world leaders as the person who will lead to a free Iran.

Babak Seradjeh, who participated in Sunday’s demonstration in Bloomington, wrote an op-ed published in the Feb. 8, 2026 edition of the Wall Street Journal that starts with a recounting of the time that he and his mother spent in prison under the last shah of Iran. Seradjeh now supports the man who imprisoned him and his mother as the one to lead Iran to freedom:

Neither the failures of his father nor the sacrifices of my mother should define where we stand in the transition to a free Iran. Through our own choices and actions, each of us must earn our place in Iran’s unstoppable freedom movement. In his support for human rights and with his blueprint for a path to democracy, Mr. Pahlavi speaks for me. His leadership, focused on dignity and freedom for Iran, has earned the trust and respect of millions of Iranians. It’s time the world showed him the same.