Iran Update: US and Israel Step Up Strikes After Khamenei’s Death
iran update — The United States and Israel launched fresh, intensive attacks across Iran on the second day of a campaign that followed an Israeli airstrike that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, plunging the region into an open confrontation and raising the prospect of further escalation in the coming hours and days.
Second day of strikes after Saturday’s deadly airstrike
The military campaign began on Saturday morning with a barrage of missiles and airstrikes, and continued into Sunday as forces struck multiple targets across Iran. The Israel Defense Forces said its air force was striking "in the heart of Tehran, " focusing efforts on destroying Iran’s remaining air defences.
Blast near Tehran government buildings
On Sunday morning a huge blast in Tehran sent a plume of smoke into the sky and shook the ground. The explosion appeared close to the country’s police headquarters and Iranian state television, as well as Tehran’s revolutionary court and a defence ministry building.
Claims of civilian casualties and international alarm
Amir-Saeid Iravani, the Iranian ambassador to the UN, told an emergency security council meeting on Saturday that hundreds of civilians had been killed or injured in the US-Israeli strikes and said the strikes had deliberately attacked civilian neighbourhoods in multiple cities. Britain’s defence secretary, John Healey, said on Sunday morning: “This is a really serious and deteriorating situation, [with] rising risks of increasing Iranian indiscriminate retaliatory attacks, ” and he accused Iran of "lashing out. "
Regional fallout: strikes, interceptions and airport shutdowns
Iranian retaliation has targeted Israel as well as civilian infrastructure and US military bases across the Arab Gulf states. Loud blasts were heard for a second day on Sunday in Dubai and over Qatar’s capital, Doha, witnesses said. Puffs of white smoke from missile interceptions were glimpsed in the skies over Dubai, while billows of dark smoke rose over its port, one of the busiest in the Middle East.
Damage to Dubai’s landmarks and disruption to global travel
Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel and its airport, which handles more than 1, 000 flights a day, were damaged in Iranian attacks overnight on sites that also hit airports in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait. The airport in Dubai, described in the context as the world’s busiest international travel hub, remained shut along with other major Middle East airports, causing one of global aviation’s most severe disruptions in years.
Trump’s warning and stated aims of the campaign
President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post that the US would hit Iran "with a force that has never been seen before" if Tehran carried out threats to retaliate after Khamenei’s death in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday. "Khamenei, one of the most evil people in history, is dead, " Trump wrote. "He was unable to avoid our intelligence and highly sophisticated tracking systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do. " Trump said the goal of the military campaign was regime change and he called on "the Iranian people to take back their country. "
Wider consequences and what’s next
The joint US-Israel offensive opens a new chapter in US intervention in the Middle East and brings the prospect of a wider war in the region and months of chaos; it is the second time in eight months that the Trump administration has used military force against Iran. Analysts have long warned that a war launched against Iran could lead to global economic turmoil. Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly across Israel early on Sunday, with a series of loud explosions heard in Jer unclear in the provided context.
Officials and observers in Washington, Tehran and allied capitals have warned that rhetoric and strikes point to further escalation in the coming hours and days; emergency diplomatic discussions took place at an emergency security council meeting on Saturday and military operations continued into Sunday.
