Iran Update: US and Israel Launch New Wave of Attacks After Khamenei’s Death
iran update — The United States and Israel launched fresh waves of intensive attacks across Iran on Sunday, the second day of a military campaign that followed an Israeli airstrike that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday and has rapidly widened into a regional crisis.
Strikes hit Tehran’s center and nearby institutions
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. The Israel Defense Forces said their air force was striking "in the heart of Tehran, " with efforts focused on destroying Iran’s remaining air defences.
What the leaders said and the campaign’s aim
President Donald Trump wrote on social media on Sunday that the US would hit Iran "with a force that has never been seen before" if Tehran carried out threats to retaliate. He also wrote, "Khamenei, one of the most evil people in history, is dead, " and said, "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 military campaign, which began on Saturday morning with a barrage of missiles and airstrikes, had the goal of regime change and called on "the Iranian people to take back their country. "
Iran’s diplomatic protest and civilian toll claims
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 attacks had deliberately hit civilian neighbourhoods in multiple cities. The joint US-Israel offensive was characterized in the context as opening a new chapter in US intervention in the Middle East and bringing the prospect of a wider war and months of chaos; it is the second time in eight months that the Trump administration has used military force against Iran.
Iran Update: hits across the Gulf and damage to major airports
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. 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. 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 as the world’s busiest international travel hub, remained shut along with other major Middle East airports, a disruption characterized as one of global aviation’s most severe in years.
Allied warnings and audible alarms
On Sunday morning the British defence secretary, John Healey, said, "This is a really serious and deteriorating situation, [with] rising risks of increasing Iranian indiscriminate retaliatory attacks, " and accused Iran of "lashing out. " Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly across Israel early on Sunday, with a series of loud explosions heard in Jer; unclear in the provided context.
