(AFP) – The Pentagon announced the first American casualties in the US-Israeli campaign that killed the supreme leader of Iran, where powerful explosions shook the capital for a second day on Sunday. The fresh blasts on Sunday evening in Tehran came after a day of dramatic Iranian missile and drone attacks on countries across the Middle East, with explosions reported in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Israel.
Iran has remained publicly defiant in the face of the US and Israeli bombardment, but US President Donald Trump told The Atlantic magazine that its leaders “want to talk,” and that he had agreed. The Pentagon reported that “three US service members have been killed in action and five are seriously wounded,” adding several others had sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions. “Major combat operations continue and our response effort is ongoing,” it said.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, meanwhile, announced a “large-scale” attack on Sunday as it launched missiles and drones at installations around the Gulf. An attack on the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh killed at least nine people, with others still missing, authorities said. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian declared Khamenei’s killing a “declaration of war against Muslims” and warned: “Iran considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators and masterminds of this historic crime.” Israel described Khamenei’s death as a “first step,” and military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani boasted that the joint operation “eliminated 40 senior commanders, including Khamenei, in one minute.”
In a social media post that adopted Trump’s style and rhetoric, Ali Larijani, the powerful head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, declared: “Today we will hit them with a force that they have never experienced before.” Trump had levelled a similar threat against Iran earlier on Sunday, but in an interview with The Atlantic, he said: “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them.” Asked when such talks might take place, Trump added, “I can’t tell you.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, said Israeli attacks on Iran “will only escalate in the days ahead.” The Israeli military announced it was mobilising around 100,000 reservists and “raising its level of readiness on the various fronts” as part of the campaign.
Iranian state TV reported on Sunday evening that a “technical team is assessing the damage” at its headquarters after they were targeted in a strike, though it was not knocked off the air. The broadcaster was previously attacked during the 12-day war with Israel in June, which the US briefly joined. Iranian media also reported that an attack on the headquarters of a border regiment in the western city of Mehran, near Iraq, killed 43 members of the security forces. “According to initial reports, this hostile act was carried out by agents of the United States and the Zionist regime,” the Mehr news agency said.
Earlier, cheers had been heard as some Iranians celebrated reports of the death of their longtime leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but after state media confirmed his killing, pro-government demonstrations also formed, chanting “Death to America!” Iran’s first retaliatory strikes on Saturday hit all the Gulf states apart from Oman, which had sought to mediate US-Iran talks. But on Sunday the country’s commercial port of Duqm was hit by two drones, injuring a foreign worker, the Oman News Agency said. Three ships were also attacked in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, maritime security agencies said, after Iran had previously declared the strategic waterway was closed.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had struck the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which Washington deployed to the region ahead of the campaign, but the Pentagon insisted it was not hit, saying the “missiles launched didn’t even come close.” Trump, meanwhile, said that US military strikes had sunk nine Iranian naval vessels and partially destroyed its navy headquarters.
Britain urged UK citizens in the Gulf region to “shelter in place,” while the US mission in Jordan urged citizens to stay away from the embassy, and in Bahrain told them to avoid hotels after one was damaged in a strike. In Iran, the Red Crescent said on Saturday evening that strikes had left 201 people dead and injured hundreds more. Internet monitor Netblocks said connectivity had been down for 24 hours in the country. Iran’s judiciary confirmed that Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Khamenei, and General Mohammad Pakpour, the head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, were among those killed. Iran’s retaliatory strikes in the Gulf have killed at least four people and wounded dozens of others. The UAE, where three people were killed, said it was withdrawing its ambassador from Iran and closing its embassy over the attacks.
Iran had already seen intense speculation on a successor to Khamenei, given his age of 86. Upon his death, many observers expected greater power for the Revolutionary Guards, which are deeply entrenched in the Iranian economy. On Sunday, Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi to join Pezeshkian on an interim leadership council to lead the country while a permanent successor is found for the supreme leader.
Iranians met the death of Khamenei with a mix of shock, grief, and joy. One Tehran resident in her 30s said people had “shouted for joy,” even in the midst of a war. She said Khamenei’s hands were stained with blood and recalled that Iranian security forces crushed mass protests in January. “We all realised that there is no way, absolutely no way, to reform this regime except through foreign intervention,” she added. But one truck driver said he could not see things turning out well. “I don’t know what will happen in the future, but it’s not a good future for us Iranians,” he said.
burs/smw/dcp – Aya Iskandarani with AFP teams in Tehran and Jerusalem
© 2024 AFP
