EXPLAINER

Iran carries out retaliatory attacks as Supreme Leader Khamenei is killed in US-Israeli attacks, pushing the region on edge.

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been killed in the attacks by the United States and Israel, alongside his top security officials, as Tehran vows to take “revenge” for the killing of the supreme leader.

Khamenei’s killing is a serious setback for Iran, where more than 200 people have been killed in the attacks across 24 out of 31 provinces since Saturday. Iran’s retaliatory attacks have targeted Israel and neighbouring Gulf countries hosting US military assets.

Khamenei, 86, was killed in the strike at his office in Tehran. The supreme leader’s daughter, son-in-law, and grandson were also killed in the attack.

Here is everything that happened so far on Day 2

Inside Iran

• The Israeli military said on Sunday that it had begun striking targets deep inside Tehran, a day after a joint US-Israeli attack killed Khamenei.
• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the sixth wave of “extensive missile and drone” attacks targeting Israeli military assets and 27 US bases in the Middle East in retaliation.
• Iran’s state media confirmed the killing of Khamenei, as well as security adviser Ali Shamkhani and IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohammad Pakpour. According to the Hamshahri newspaper, Ahmad Vahidi has been named the IRGC’s new commander-in-chief. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the news.
• Iranian armed forces’ chief of staff, Abdul Rahim Mousavi, and Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh were also killed in the attacks.
• A three-person council – consisting of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, head of the judiciary, and one of the jurists of the Guardian Council – will temporarily assume all leadership duties in the country, Iran’s state TV reported.
• Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, said plans are in place to form a temporary governing body to carry out Khamenei’s duties.
• The death toll in the attack on an elementary girls’ school in southern Iran’s Minab city climbed to 148 people, and 95 others were injured.
• Khamenei’s supporters have taken to the streets in the main Iranian cities, including Tehran and Isfahan, to mourn the killing of the supreme leader.
• Iran’s highest-ranking official to appear on camera since Khamenei’s killing, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the parliament speaker, called the US and Israeli leaders “filthy criminals” who will face “devastating blows that you yourselves will be driven to beg”.

Latest from Trump

• “Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever been hit before,” US President Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social post late at night. “They better not do that, however, because if they do, we will hit them with a force that has never been seen before!” he added.
• In an interview with CBS News, Trump said he believes the US is better positioned to reach a diplomatic solution with Iran. “Much easier now than it was a day ago, obviously”, Trump said, adding, “because they are getting beat up bad”.

Israeli attacks and Iranian retaliation

• The Israeli ambulance service says one Israeli woman has been killed, and 121 others wounded, mostly with minor injuries, in waves of Iranian missile attacks.
• Air raid sirens continue to blare in and around the city of Tel Aviv.
• The Israeli military said the majority of these missiles and drones were intercepted or downed, but some managed to get through in Tel Aviv and Beit Shemesh, a city west of Jerusalem.
• Israel’s military said it struck more than 30 targets in attacks on western and central Iran in another wave of strikes “to target the ballistic missile array and air defence systems of the Iranian terror regime”.
• Attacks will continue on air defence installations, missile sites, military headquarters, and other “regime targets” in Iran, the statement from Israel’s military added.

Iran continues to target the Gulf region

• At least 11 explosions were heard above Qatar on Sunday morning. The Qatari Ministry of Interior says a total of 16 eight additional injuries have been recorded following the Iranian attacks.
• Oman’s Duqm commercial port was hit by two drones, injuring one person, the state news agency said on Sunday. Oman was mediating between the US and Iran.
• Oman’s maritime security centre said on Sunday that the Palau-flagged oil tanker Skylight was targeted about 5 nautical miles (9km) off Musandam. “A twenty-person crew were evacuated, initial information shows four people were injured,” it said.
• Jordanian defence systems intercepted missiles that entered the airspace of the capital, Amman, as well as northern areas.
• The US embassy in Jordan issued a security alert early on Sunday morning, urging people to shelter in place.
• Sirens have also been reported in Kuwait as Iran continues its retaliatory attacks against the US allies in the Gulf.
• More explosions were heard in Dubai as well, a day after a fire broke out in the city’s Palm ⁠Islands tourist attraction. Debris from a drone intercepted by Dubai’s military led to a fire at Jebel Ali port, a frequent stop for US Navy ships in the Gulf.
• Iraq’s Muqtada al-Sadr expressed “sadness and sorrow” over Khamenei’s killing as protesters in Baghdad confronted security forces in areas that host the country’s government, parliament, and foreign embassies.
• Protests have erupted in neighbouring Iraq as well as in Indian-administered Kashmir and Pakistan. At least six people were killed and several injured in riots that broke out near the US consulate in the Pakistani port city of Karachi.
• Iraq has announced three days of public mourning across the country in the wake of Khamenei’s killing.

At the United Nations Security Council

• US Ambassador Mike Waltz said the strikes on Iran were directed towards dismantling its ballistic missile capabilities, degrading naval assets, and ensuring that “the Iranian regime can never, ever threaten the world with a nuclear weapon”.
• Russia’s UN envoy strongly condemned the latest military attacks on Iran, calling them “another unprovoked act of armed aggression”. Vassily Nebenzia said, “The US and Israeli military operation has been a betrayal of diplomacy.”
• China’s Ambassador Fu Cong called the US-Israeli strikes “brazen”, condemning the threat of force and calling for respect for Iran’s “sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity”. He said it was “shocking” that the US and Israeli attacks came in the middle of diplomatic negotiations between the US and Iran.
• The UN Chief said that the military action carries the risk of “igniting a chain of events that no one can control in the most volatile region of the world,” and added that “everything must be done” to prevent wider escalation of war across the Middle East.

What’s the latest situation at the Strait of Hormuz?

• Iran moved to close the Strait of Hormuz, while ships in the Gulf reported receiving warnings from Iran’s Revolutionary IRGC that vessels would not be permitted to pass through the strategic waterway.
• Reuters reported that the IRGC mandated that “no ship is allowed to pass the Strait of Hormuz”.
• Nearly 20 per cent of the world’s oil consumption passes through the strait, making it one of the world’s most vital oil export routes.