Tehran hit with fresh attacks, Iran sends missiles toward Israel, Gulf states vowing renewed force after supreme leader’s assassination

Further blasts shook the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Sunday morning, part of a renewed wave of attacks in the offensive that Israel and the United States began across the country 24 hours previously. 

Yesterday’s strikes on the capital had targeted and killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iranian authorities confirmed on Saturday night.

Iranian officials said that Iran would continue and intensify the wave of retaliatory fire it began on Saturday morning, extending to sites across Israel as well as US military targets in countries across the Gulf. 

Khamenei, who was killed at 86, was the second Supreme Leader of Iran since the 1979 revolution. He assumed the position in 1989, succeeding Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, which overthrew the US-backed Shah, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, in 1979. He was targeted by Israeli missiles at his Tehran compound. Several top Iranian commanders are also believed to have been killed in the attack. 

The Iranian government has declared 40 days of mourning for Khamenei, vowing that “this heinous crime will not go unpunished,” asserting that Khamenei's assassination “is a grave crime that will open a new chapter in the history of the Islamic world.”

Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, Ali Larijani, vowed today that Iran will resume firing at Israeli and US targets in the region. After Saturday’s attacks, Larijani said in a post on X that today “we will hit them with a force that they have never experienced before.” 

The Iranian Fars news agency reported that Iran has deployed hypersonic missiles for the first time to target the Gulf.

Iran’s initial retaliatory barrage set air raid alarms ringing across Israel on Saturday morning while targeting US military posts across the Gulf.

The possibility of large-scale regional implications loomed as a deterrent to a prolongment of the Israeli-US offensive against Iran during last year’s 12-day war, when Tehran targeted Qatar, a US ally, for the first time. 

Tehran made good on the threat to export the conflict to the region on Saturday, hitting a US military base in Bahrain and targeting similar sites in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. The countries, in turn, said that Iran’s missiles had been deterred by air defenses.

Kuwait’s and Dubai's international airports were also struck. Iran’s volley of missiles continued to rain down on Saturday evening, causing large explosions in central Dubai and the Bahraini capital of Manama, while officials from the UK, which announced yesterday that its regional forces had joined the US-Israeli operations, claimed that Iran had aimed for UK military assets in Cyprus. 

A fresh wave of attacks aimed for sites across Israel on Sunday morning, where agencies reported that one person has been killed and around two dozen injured in attacks so far.  Further strikes also targeted Kurdish Iraq, Riyadh, Doha and Bahrain with drone attacks in Oman since the morning. 

With the confirmation of Khamenei’s assassination, US President Donald Trump celebrated the killing on Truth Social, calling Khamenei “one of the most evil people in History.” Trump claimed the operation brought “justice” for Iranians, Americans and others killed by Iran. 

Trump said the assassination was the result of US “Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel.” US intelligence played a major role in tracking Khamenei and other top Iranian leaders since the June Iran-Israel war, facilitating the Israeli strike that assassinated the Iranian leader during a meeting with other senior Iranian officials and military leaders on Saturday morning, according to the New York Times.

The meeting targeted yesterday morning gathered IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohammad Pakpour, Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, Iranian Defense Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani, IRGC Aerospace Force Commander Majid Mousavi and Deputy Intelligence Minister Mohammad Shirazi.

Iranian state media confirmed the deaths of Pakpour, Nasirzadeh, and Shamkhani, while the fate of the other leaders remains unknown. Israel also announced the deaths of head of the intelligence division of the Emergency Command Salah Asadi, head of Khamenei's military office Mohammad Shirazi, head of the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND) Hossein Jabal Amelian, Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, and Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian described the assassination of Khamenei as “a blatant declaration of war against Muslims, and especially against Shiites, everywhere in the world,” emphasizing his country's determination to avenge “the perpetrators of this historic crime and those who orchestrated it.”

Aside from targeting a number of strategic sites across Iran, including areas believed to house nuclear facilities, the US-Israeli strikes on Saturday hit a girls’ elementary school in the city of Minab, in the south Iranian province of Hormozgan. At least 148 people were killed in the attack, most of them children, while 95 were wounded. This is “the most bitter news” since the beginning of the conflict, Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said on X. “God knows how many more children's bodies they will pull from under the rubble.”

Despite the strong blow of the supreme leader’s assassination, Iran said it was prepared for the scenario of Khamenei's assassination. “We have prepared ourselves for these moments and have considered all scenarios," Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf said today in a video message relayed via state television.

These plans are already in action with Larjani’s announcement of the formation of an interim leadership council consisting of Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, as well Guardian Council cleric Ayatollah Alireza Arafi. 

According to Article 111 of the Iranian constitution, this tri-council is to be formed in case of the absence of a supreme leader, “so that the leadership of the system may continue without interruption and the Assembly of Experts may select a permanent leader at the earliest opportunity,” Expediency Discernment Council spokesperson Mohsen Dehnavi explained.

Announcing the launch of US operations against Iran on Saturday, Trump encouraged Iranians to “take over” the government after the conclusion of the US operation, saying that America would back any effort to do so without articulating an intention for the US to back a specific alternative and reiterating the US support for popular revolt against Iranian authorities Trump voiced at the beginning of the year as the security forces launched an unprecedented crackdown against popular demonstrations. 

Trump warned in his Saturday post that the bombing on Iran will “continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or as long as necessary to achieve our objective of peace throughout the Middle East and, indeed, the world.” 

However, during his phone interview with Axios on Saturday, the US President said he has several “off ramps” from the joint aggression, indicating a willingness to return to the diplomatic track that saw the two sides depart from Geneva on Thursday without an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program.

“I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days and tell the Iranians: See you again in a few years if you start rebuilding [the nuclear and missile programs],” he said.

Even amid ongoing strikes, Iran also signalled willingness to return to the negotiating table on Saturday evening with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi telling NBS News on Saturday afternoon that he sees a “possibility to reach a deal” that can guarantee Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful, adding that Iran remains interested in de-escalation though asserting Iran’s right to defend itself in the same breath.