**Paris (France) (AFP)** – Iran’s clerical leaders vowed to avenge the death of its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and launched a fresh wave of deadly “large-scale” attacks on Sunday as Israel hit back at the capital Tehran. It came after the United States and Israel claimed to have killed Khamenei in a wave of strikes Saturday against targets in Iran, which sparked swift retaliation by the Islamic Republic.
Here are the latest developments:
– **Iran kills 5 in Israel**
Iran’s latest barrage of strikes killed at least five people in central Israel, police reported. The country’s emergency service had earlier warned of casualties in Beit Shemesh, with a young girl among them. News of the deaths came after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced a fresh wave of attacks against the “enemy”. In the UAE, which has been hard-hit by Iran’s retaliation, the defense ministry said on Sunday that three people had died and 58 been wounded since the strikes began.
– **Iran denies targeting neighbours**
Iran’s powerful security chief denied on Sunday that Tehran was targeting its neighbors in the region, insisting that its retaliation was aimed at US bases. Even so, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said on Sunday it summoned the Iranian ambassador “in response to Iran’s brazen attacks that targeted the Kingdom and a number of brotherly.” Gulf countries will convene Sunday evening to discuss a unified response to Iran’s attacks, two Gulf diplomats told AFP, though the meeting will be online “due to the airport closures”.
– **Sinking oil tanker**
Iranian state television said Sunday that an oil tanker was sinking after it was struck while attempting to “illegally” pass through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have threatened to close. The closure of the strait, through which a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil and a fifth of all liquefied natural gas passes, could cause the price of crude to spike on the world markets. As the news of the sinking broke, eight OPEC+ states announced a greater-than-expected increase of 206,000 barrels a day to the cartel’s oil production quotas. The group, which includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, did not explicitly mention the outbreak of the Iran conflict but cited “a steady global economic outlook and current healthy market fundamentals” as reasons for the increase.
– **’Shelter in place’**
The UK Foreign Office on Sunday urged British citizens in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE to “shelter in place”. The Foreign Office “now advises against all but essential travel to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE,” it said on X in its latest update. Britain’s defense secretary John Healey meanwhile said Iran’s “indiscriminate retaliatory attacks” included “two ballistic missiles fired in the direction of Cyprus,” although they were likely not targeting the Mediterranean island.
– **Israel hits Tehran**
The Israeli army announced Sunday it was again launching “large-scale” strikes targeting the “heart of Tehran”. Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz also hailed Khamenei’s killing as a “turning point in the war.” “He led the campaign of destruction against the State of Israel, he built the entire axis of evil around us, and within Iran itself he pursued an uncompromising line against the State of Israel,” Katz said during a security assessment along with top military and security officials, according to a statement by his office.
– **Ayatollah tapped for council**
Ayatollah Alireza Arafi was named to an interim leadership council, which includes the president and head of the judiciary, to be at the helm of the country until a new permanent leader is selected.
– **Iran retaliates**
Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian said the killing of Khamenei was a “declaration of war against Muslims” on Sunday, vowing vengeance. Iranian security chief Ali Larijani then promised to hit the US and Israel with a force never seen before. Earlier, Iran’s army said it targeted on Sunday US bases in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and in the Gulf in response to the attack launched by the US and Israel. Air raid sirens sounded and explosions were heard over Jerusalem on Sunday after the Israeli military said it had detected missiles launched from Iran towards Israel. AFP correspondents heard blasts in Dubai, east of the Saudi capital Riyadh, across Bahrain’s capital Manama, and Qatar, where thick black smoke was also seen rising on the horizon south of Doha. A top Emirati official warned Iran on Sunday that “your war is not with your neighbours” and that retaliation against Gulf states was a “miscalculation”.
– **US intercepts drones in Iraq**
US defense systems intercepted at least two drones on Sunday over the city of Erbil in northern Iraq, as sirens sounded from the American consulate, an AFP journalist reported. US officials also warned citizens in Bahrain to avoid hotels in the capital Manama while staff at the US embassy to Jordan were told to avoid the embassy compound, citing risks of attacks.
– **Deadly protests erupt**
Crowds gathered on Sunday in Iran’s south to call for vengeance following the killing of Khamenei in US and Israeli attacks, Iranian media reported. Similar gatherings took place elsewhere in Iran including in Tehran and the central city of Yazd. Hundreds of protesters in Iraq, which officially declared three days of mourning for Khamenei, also tried to storm the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, where the US embassy is located. In Pakistan, nine people were killed as hundreds of protesters tried to storm the US consulate in the megacity of Karachi, the local rescue service said. Several thousand Shia Muslims joined demonstrations in Indian-administered Kashmir, many chanting anti-Israel and anti-US slogans.
– **Evacuations**
Thailand is readying to evacuate its citizens from the Middle East by military or charter flights, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Sunday.
– **More deaths announced**
Iran’s police intelligence chief Gholamreza Rezaian was killed during US and Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic, Iranian media reported Sunday. Iran’s armed forces chief of staff Abdolrahim Mousavi was killed along with other senior generals in US and Israeli strikes on the country, state TV reported on Sunday. State TV listed the names of Mousavi along with defense minister Aziz Nasirzadeh and others.
– **Iran leader killed**
Iranian state television reported Khamenei’s death in the early hours of Sunday, broadcasting archive images with a black banner. Iranian media also reported the deaths of his daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. “Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump had said hours earlier on his Truth Social platform. “Heavy and pinpoint bombing…will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST,” Trump wrote.
– **Guards chief killed**
Iran’s judiciary confirmed Sunday that the chief of the Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Pakpour, and another top security adviser, Ali Shamkhani, were also “martyred” in the strikes.
– **UN nuclear agency to meet**
The United Nations’ nuclear agency will hold an extraordinary meeting on Iran on Monday. In a statement late on Saturday, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the meeting was at the request of Russia, a key ally of Tehran.
© 2024 AFP
