Deadly strikes hit Israel as Iran promises to avenge Khamenei's killing
Under US and Israeli fire for a second day, and reeling from the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iran on Sunday announced a new leadership, vowed revenge and attacked countries across the region.
Several senior military and political figures have been killed by Israel and the US since the two countries began striking Iran on Saturday morning. Donald Trump said 48 leaders had been slain.
Iranian authorities acknowledged several of them, including Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s defence council, and Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh.
Despite the blows, Iran continued its retaliatory missile and drone attacks on Israel and US assets in the region.
An Iranian missile struck a shelter in Beit Shemesh, a majority ultra-Orthodox town in central Israel. At least nine people were killed, bringing the overall death toll in Israel since hostilities began to 12.
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"Ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods are very densely populated. The greater the density, the greater the risks," Pnina Pfeuffer, an ultra-Orthodox Israeli activist, told Middle East Eye.
Iran also kept up its attacks on neighbouring Gulf states, saying they are hosting US troops, although some strikes seemed to target civilian areas.
Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Manama, Doha and Kuwait were all hit, as well as Oman, which was previously attempting to avert war as a mediator between Tehran and Washington.
Three people were reported killed in the UAE and one in Kuwait.
Meanwhile, Washington said that three US military personnel had been killed and five seriously wounded during the operation, dubbed “Epic Fury”.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian appeared on state TV for the first time since the attacks began.
He has been named part of a three-man interim leadership council alongside judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei and Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, a senior religious scholar.
Pezeshkian said Iran has a “legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators and masterminds” of Khamenei’s killing, which he called a “historic crime”.
Later, Trump, in an interview with The Atlantic, claimed that the new Iranian leadership was attempting to begin negotiations, and that he had agreed to speak to them.
However, Israeli news site Ynet reported that Tehran had refused the offer of a ceasefire.
Celebrations and mourning
On Sunday morning, supporters of Iran's ruling establishment dominated Tehran’s streets.
Backers of Khamenei and the Islamic Republic appeared in an organised manner.
In central neighbourhoods of the capital, groups of men on motorcycles could be seen carrying flags and identical posters that appeared to have been distributed widely.
They called for “severe revenge” and chanted slogans against the US and Israel.
Huge pro-government rallies were held in Tehran, Isfahan, Qom and other major cities.
The night before, celebrations had broken out across Iran when news that Khamenei had been killed by a strike earlier in the day began to spread.
Fereshteh, a 47-year-old resident of Mashhad, described extraordinary scenes in the deeply conservative holy city.
“On Saturday night, people were handing out sweets in the streets," she said. "Some got out of their cars in heavy traffic and were dancing to music from their vehicles. Young men and women were celebrating together, without observing the mandatory hijab.”
However, other Iranians were dismayed to learn the man who had been their political leader and spiritual figurehead for 37 years had been killed.
Ali, a 36-year-old in Tehran, said he is deeply saddened and angered by the supreme leader’s death.
“Those who are happy about the killing of our leader do not understand the dark future that awaits us,” he told MEE.
“Khamenei was someone who managed to keep this nation united. He has many supporters in Iran. The future will show what a great loss his absence will be for the country.”
Economic and human cost
The war is set to cause the economy of the Middle East, and indeed the world, damage and disruption.
Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil passes, potentially causing crude prices to rise when markets open on Monday morning.
Two ships were attacked in the strategic waterway, according to British maritime security agency UKMTO.
Iranian state TV said an oil tanker was sinking after being struck while "illegally" trying to pass through the strait.
'This will only escalate in the days ahead'
- Benjamin Netanyahu
The US military, meanwhile, said it sank an Iranian warship in the Gulf of Oman.
The IRGC said it attacked the USS Abraham Lincoln, a US aircraft carrier, which the Pentagon denied.
According to the Iranian Red Crescent, at least 201 people have been killed in air strikes across Iran and 747 wounded, but the true number is likely larger.
In the southern town of Minab, the death toll from a strike on a girls’ primary school on Saturday rose to 153.
The vast majority of the dead were girls, who local authorities said were aged between seven and 12 years old. A staff member at the school told MEE it had become “a house of mourning “.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes on Iran will only intensify and that 100,000 reservists had been called up.
"I have issued instructions for the continuation of the campaign," he said in a video statement.
"Our forces are now striking at the heart of Tehran with intense power, and this will only escalate in the days ahead."
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