Iran Update: iran update as US and Israel launch new wave of attacks after Khamenei’s death
The US and Israel have launched fresh waves of intensive attacks across Iran on the second day of a military campaign that, the context shows, aims at overthrowing the country’s government; the violence follows the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an Israeli airstrike and has plunged the Middle East into a new regional conflict with no certain timeline or outcome. This iran update matters because rhetoric from Washington and Tehran and the scale of strikes have pushed the region toward further escalation and widespread disruption.
Strikes inside Tehran: blasts near key government sites
A huge blast in Tehran on Sunday morning sent a plume of smoke into the sky and shook the ground. The explosion appeared close to Tehran’s police headquarters and Iranian state television, and also near 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.
Casualties and UN diplomacy after Saturday’s attacks
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 those strikes had deliberately attacked civilian neighbourhoods in multiple cities. The campaign began on Saturday morning with what the context describes as a barrage of missiles and airstrikes.
US objectives and presidential warnings
The US president, Donald Trump, wrote that the US would hit Iran "with a force that has never been seen before" if Tehran carried out threats to retaliate after the death of the supreme leader. Trump also wrote, "Khamenei, one of the most evil people in history, is dead, " and said Khamenei "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 called on "the Iranian people to take back their country. " The offensive is the second time in eight months that the Trump administration has used military force against Iran.
Iran Update: Regional escalation and air-traffic disruption
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.
Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel and its airport, which the context notes 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, identified in the context as the world’s busiest international travel hub, remained shut, along with other major Middle East airports, causing what the context describes as one of global aviation’s most severe disruptions in years.
