The missiles came in the dead of night, but they weren’t aimed at barracks or missile silos. They went after something far more intimate: the money.

Akahi News gathered that officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other Iranian military personnel are staring at empty accounts this week after Israeli strikes took down critical infrastructure belonging to Bank Sepah, the state-owned financial institution that handles military salaries. The attack landed while the bank was actively processing payroll, freezing wages mid-transaction.

When Payday Became a Target

Tuesday’s strikes hit facilities used by both Bank Sepah and Bank Melli, two of Iran’s largest state-run banks. But it was the timing of the Sepah strike that has military families worried. According to reports monitored by Akahi News, the bank’s data centre was processing salary payments for armed forces personnel when the missiles struck.

The result is chaos on the home front. Soldiers who expected to see their accounts credited this week are now being told to wait. How long? Nobody seems to know.

Bank Sepah isn’t just any bank. It is the oldest state bank in Iran and has functioned for decades as the primary financial channel for the country’s military establishment, including the IRGC. Akahi News understands that international sanctions have long targeted the institution precisely because of these deep military ties.

Warfare Finds New Ground

This attack marks something of a departure. For months, Israel and Iran have traded blows across borders and through proxies. But going after the bank that pays soldiers’ salaries? That feels different.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the strike caught Bank Sepah at its most vulnerable moment—right in the middle of running payroll. Officials quoted in the report warned that if systems remain down, the disruption could spread beyond the military to affect other government workers who rely on the same financial networks.

Akahi News learnt that this isn’t a one-off. Banking infrastructure across the region is increasingly finding itself in the crosshairs as both sides expand their understanding of what constitutes a military target. Disrupt an enemy’s ability to pay its troops, the thinking goes, and you disrupt its ability to fight.

What Happens to Soldiers Who Can’t Be Paid

Out there in the barracks, though, strategy doesn’t put food on the table.

The IRGC officer stationed along some distant border wasn’t thinking about escalation dominance when he checked his bank balance this week. He was thinking about rent. About school fees. About the supermarket bill that’s due.

For the conscripts doing their mandatory service, the situation is even more precarious. They didn’t choose this life. They certainly didn’t choose to have their wages caught in the crossfire of a war most of them never signed up for.

Emergency workers in Tehran pulled bodies from the rubble, too. Bank employees. Civilians. People who showed up to work and found themselves in the middle of someone else’s war.

The Bigger Picture

This strike didn’t happen in isolation. It comes as tensions between Israel and Iran reach heights not seen in years, with both sides showing increasing willingness to hit targets once considered off-limits.

By taking out Bank Sepah, Israel has sent a message: the networks that fund Iran’s military operations are now very much on the table. The question nobody seems to have answered yet is where this stops.

What happens to a country when its soldiers can’t be paid? What happens to a war when the money runs out? These are the questions lingering in Tehran as officials scramble to restore systems and soldiers scramble to make ends meet.

For Now, They Wait

Bank Sepah is working to get back online. Technicians are doing what technicians do. But for thousands of military families across Iran, the wait is the hardest part.

Payday came. The money didn’t. And in the strange new logic of modern warfare, that might have been the point all along.