Shayan Morshedi stayed awake, waiting for news from home, as the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Saturday. 

Originally from Iran, the Memorial University PhD student said he messaged his parents and friends as soon as the first strikes hit the country Saturday morning. 

“I knew the Internet would be shut down very soon. I just messaged them and asked them how they are and I just asked them to take care of themselves,” he told CBC News on Sunday. 

Morshedi said he is staying in touch with anonymous Iranians through Telegram – a social media app that allows for communicating with encrypted messages – who are keeping him informed of what is going on. 

Like many Iranians, Morshedi has mixed feelings after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in Israeli-U.S. air strikes

“I would say I’m happy that Khamenei is dead, at the same time I’m sad.  I’m still grieving for all the lives that … we have lost … also and I’m angry that we are in this situation,” he said. 

According to activists, at least 6,519 have been killed in Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests that started at the end of December.

“[Khamenei] was the one who was killing people there, the kids, students,” Morshedi said. 

He hoped the leader or the regime would be held responsible for the deaths.  

“I was waiting to hear that [the regime was] captured or they will be in the court to answer about what they did and tell people what they did,” he said. 

And although Khamenei is dead, Morshedi said he isn’t certain it will result in a regime change. 

“The regime is not one person. The regime is an ideology. It’s a system,” he said. 

Morshedi is hopeful a referendum will be held to allow the people of Iran to decide what will happen next. 

“We could live without war, with peace, and we could rebuild,” he said.

But because the regime still exists, Morshedi remains pessimistic. 

“It makes me … hopeless and also kind of fearful about the future.” 

Fear across the Middle East

On Saturday, Iran launched retaliatory attacks against U.S. military bases across the Middle East, including in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. 

This shut down airports across the region, and the Canadian government has advised Canadians to avoid travel to the area. 

On Saturday, sirens could be heard across Doha, Qatar, as the country downed missiles. 

Newfoundlander Allison Furlong, who has been living in Qatar for 12 years, said she was notified about missiles being intercepted around noon on Saturday. 

“It’s a little bit jarring, of course, to hear those sounds overhead. You can hear the missile interception, you can hear the sound, the boom,” Furlong told CBC News on Saturday. 

Furlong said she received government SMS informing her to stay indoors and shelter in place. 

“We’re all having faith in the missile defence system, which is American, and so we just hope that the missiles will continue to be intercepted,” she said. 

Qatar said it continued to intercept projectiles Sunday morning. 

Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.