About 100 gather near Citrus Park plaza in support of U.S. military as Iranian Americans voice concern for relatives amid communications outages.
TAMPA, Fla. — As the war between the United States and Iran enters its second week, supporters gathered in Tampa on Sunday to rally behind the U.S. military while many in the local Iranian community anxiously awaited word from relatives overseas.
Nearly 100 people assembled near the plaza at Citrus Park, joining hundreds of similar rallies taking place across the country in support of the military campaign.
The demonstration also served as a moment of remembrance for the seven U.S. service members so far killed during the conflict.
At the same time, many attendees said they were struggling to maintain contact with loved ones in Iran as fighting intensified and communication systems were disrupted.
For Amir Ardebily, who helped organize the rally, the uncertainty has been constant.
“We can not sleep. My wife and I are getting up every two to three minutes looking at the phone,” Ardebily said.
A lack of internet access inside Iran has made communication especially difficult for people in the Tampa Bay area trying to contact relatives and friends.
“Today, I was lucky enough that I was able to talk to a friend of mine who had internet for a short time. I think he paid a lot of money for Starlink, I think they call it. He was able to contact us to let us know that they’re doing good. My sister-in-law’s house was bombed because it was right next to a Revolutionary Guard’s station,” Ardebily said.
U.S. officials issued a safety warning today, saying the Iranian government has been launching drones and missiles from densely populated civilian areas. Officials said that launching attacks from civilian locations could cause those areas to be classified as sites of military activity and could “lose protected status” under international law.
As military operations escalate throughout the region, the U.S. military also issued a safety warning to civilians in Iran urging them to stay home.
Ardebily said many in the Iranian diaspora want to raise awareness about the situation facing civilians in the country.
“We want to be the voice for our people in Iran because they’re getting killed left and right; they’re brave. This revolution to be honest with you belongs to the women of Iran more than anything else. They’re the ones getting killed, 16/17 year old girls on the street getting shot,” Ardebily said.
Yesterday, President Donald Trump said U.S. forces had dealt major blows to Iran’s military capabilities. The president saying American and Israeli forces had knocked out 42 Iranian ships.
“Some of them were very large, in three days. That was the end of their navy. We knocked out their Air Force. We knocked out their communications. All of their telecommunications is gone,” Trump said.
Appreciation for the president echoed amongst rally participants, like Kambiz Behjati, who said most of his relatives remain in Iran.
Behjati said about 80% of his family still lives there, even though he has called Tampa home for about a decade.
“We are kind of a bit concerned about them but they are brave enough to survive this dark moment to let the United States army and Israel army to finish the job,” Behjati said.
He said many people in Iran are closely following guidance from U.S. forces.
“So we trust the American soldiers and American army when they said, stay at home. The time is coming, we’ll let you know. We trust them,” Behjati said.
President Trump initially said he expected the conflict to last four to five weeks. He has since said there is no exact timetable for the war, saying it will continue “whatever it takes.”
Members of the Persian community in the Tampa area said they plan to continue holding demonstrations every weekend until the conflict ends.