(AFP) – Iran will hold a funeral Wednesday for its security chief Ali Larijani as it vowed revenge, firing off a wave of missiles at Israel after it killed the powerful figure in an air strike. A barrage of Iranian missiles killed two people near Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, while Gulf nations intercepted rockets and drones headed for targets including US bases in the region.
In Lebanon, pulled into the Middle East war by Iran-backed Hezbollah, Israel conducted a wave of deadly strikes including in central Beirut, with AFPTV’s live broadcast showing plumes of smoke rising from one of the targeted areas. According to Iran’s Fars and Tasnim news agencies, funerals for Larijani and another powerful figure killed by Israel, Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij paramilitary force, will take place from 1030 GMT in Tehran. Their deaths were announced Tuesday.
Larijani is the most prominent figure of the Islamic republic killed since Israel and the United States launched their attacks on Iran on February 28, killing supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and igniting a war across the Middle East. The slain ayatollah’s funeral was due to be held days after he was killed, but that was later postponed indefinitely. “Iran’s response to the assassination of the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council will be decisive and regrettable,” Iranian army chief Amir Hatami said in a statement.
– ‘Only just begun’ –
Besides sending missiles and drones into Israel and Gulf nations, Iran has sought to extract a heavy toll on the global economy, including by driving up the cost of oil by all but closing the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for crude. With oil still hovering around $100 a barrel, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Wednesday that the global repercussions of the war “has only just begun and will hit all”. As part of an effort to reopen Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s crude transits, the US military said it brought out some of the heaviest bombs in its arsenal to penetrate adjacent missile sites.
The United States dropped several 5,000-pound (2,250 kg) bombs — estimated to cost $288,000 each — on “hardened Iranian missile sites” near the coast that posed a threat to international shipping, Central Command said. US President Donald Trump earlier Tuesday fumed that American allies, which have largely distanced themselves from his war, were not lining up behind the United States to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. But Trump also boasted that the US military did not need its allies, writing on his Truth Social platform: “WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”
– ‘National awakening’ –
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which said Wednesday they launched missiles at central Israel as retaliation, warned in a statement that Larijani’s death would spur further attacks. The “pure blood of this great martyr… will be a source of honour, power and national awakening against the front of global arrogance,” the powerful military force said in a statement. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan lashed out at Israel, condemning its “political assassinations” of Tehran’s leaders as “illegal activities outside the normal laws of war”.
But Israel vowed also to target the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since he succeeded his father. “We will track him down, find him, and neutralise him,” military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told reporters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again called for the end of the Islamic republic, although he and Trump have stopped short of saying that is their goal in the wider war.
In contrast to Mojtaba Khamenei, Larijani, 68, had walked openly with crowds at a pro-government rally last week in Tehran. He had “effectively been the figure in charge of the regime’s survival, its regional policy and its defence strategy,” David Khalfa, co-founder of the Atlantic Middle East Forum, told AFP.
– Deaths in Israel, Lebanon –
In Israel, medics said two people died after an Iranian missile barrage caused extensive damage to a building near the commercial hub Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, Lebanon said Israel struck central Beirut early Wednesday without warning, killing at least six people, as the Israeli military announced it was targeting the country’s south. Lebanon was drawn into the war when Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel over the ayatollah’s death.
Elsewhere, an Iranian projectile struck near Australia’s military headquarters for the Middle East in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. And the Saudi defence ministry said it had intercepted a ballistic missile near Prince Sultan Air Base, which houses US military personnel.
burs-ar/ser – AFP teams in Jerusalem, Tehran, Beirut and Washington
© 2024 AFP
