Israel launched on Sunday a new wave of air strikes against Iran, which dawned with Tehran officially confirming the death of its veteran supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in bombings blamed on the US and Israel, while Bahrain confirmed it had intercepted a new wave of “Iranian ballistic missiles and drones” launched during a retaliatory strike by Iran, which also launched missiles in the direction of Cyprus. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump also confirmed further bombing raids on the country’s main underground nuclear facilities.
Hours after Washington and Tel Aviv announced that an air strike had killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as part of the military campaign launched on Saturday morning to overthrow the Islamic Republic’s government, Iranian state media confirmed the death of the 86-year-old Iranian leader. Shortly before, his daughter, son-in-law and grandson were confirmed dead in an air strike.
Israeli military sources said Sunday that Khamenei was killed in a large-scale operation carried out by its air force. In statements addressed to Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said that a red line has been crossed with Khamenei’s death and that both “will pay for it”. In another blow to the Iranian leadership, Iran’s state television also confirmed the death in the attacks of the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, General Abdolrahim Mousavi, appointed last June after the death of his predecessor during Israel’s attacks on Iran.
According to sources quoted by Al-Jazeera, cleric Alireza Arafi, a member of the Guardian Council, has been appointed as a jurist member of Iran’s Leadership Council, the body charged with taking over the duties of the late Khamenei until the so-called Assembly of Experts chooses a successor. Arafi will be part of the interim leadership alongside the country’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and the head of the Supreme Court, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei.
“This is an open declaration of war against Muslims“
Precisely, Pezeshkian declared that Khamenei’s death constitutes an “open declaration of war against Muslims“. “This tragic event is the greatest test facing the Islamic world today,” the Iranian president said in a message offering his condolences on the assassination of the supreme ayatollah.
The Palestinian group Hamas also condemned the US and Israeli attacks and Khamenei’s death, which it described as “heinous”, mourning his assassination. “He provided all kinds of political, diplomatic and military support to the Palestinian people, our cause and our resistance,” Hamas said in a statement, stressing that Arab and Muslim countries have a “political, legal and historical responsibility to take immediate and decisive action” in response to the war against Iran.
Also, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council issued a direct warning to Washington and Tel Aviv. “Yesterday Iran fired missiles at the United States and Israel, and they caused them harm,” Larijani said in a message posted on social media. “Today we will hit them with a force they have never experienced before.” His words were a rejoinder to a similar message from Trump, who said that “Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever been hit before… They better not do that, however, because if they do, we will hit them with a force that has never been seen before!“. Israel later confirmed the death overnight of a woman during an Iranian attack on Tel Aviv, that could not be intercepted by Iron Dome.
Until now, US and Israeli bombing had concentrated on the outskirts of the capital, Tehran, but the attacks launched on Sunday by the Israeli army reached the centre of the capital, hitting more than half a dozen targets in the city, including areas close to the international airport. Hours later, Trump announced that the US had “totally obliterated” the three main Iranian nuclear facilities in what he described as “spectacularly successful” strikes. US military sources said bunker-buster bombs and high-powered missiles were used against the Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan complexes.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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