CBS News attended the burials on Monday of a number of individuals the Iranian government said were military and intelligence officers and their relatives at a cemetery about 16 miles south of Tehran. CBS News was able to attend with government permission. 

The Iranian government has not allowed the media to publicize anti-regime voices from within Iran, and no one against the war or the regime would speak to CBS News on camera at the burials, even with the promise of anonymity.

Many of those being buried were killed by Israeli airstrikes, including IRGC cyber security specialists, intelligence officers and their family members, the Iranian government said. CBS News could not independently verify this.

There was an overwhelming presence on Tehran’s streets Monday of Basij paramilitary fighters, meanwhile, many carrying AK-47s as they carried out random checks on vehicles and individuals around the city, questioning people’s reasons for travelling.

“My brother worked at the cyber department. Last week, on Monday, their building was hit. From what we heard, they said their project was so important that a bounty had been placed on them,” one woman at the cemetery told CBS News. “My brother is in a better place right now, and we are proud of him. I hope that the religion of Islam truly remains strong and established, and that the U.S. and Israel are destroyed, because they commit so much oppression.”

Another man at the cemetery told CBS News “it is a war and everyone has their worries,” but “God is with us. God willing, the Islamic Republic of Iran will be victorious in this war.”