Motorists drive past a plume of smoke rising from a reported Iranian strike in the industrial district of Doha, Qatar. Photo by Mahmud Hams, AFP
The United States hit hundreds of targets across Iran, and Israel expanded its bombing to Lebanon today as US President Donald Trump vowed to avenge the first US deaths in the war he launched to topple Tehran’s ruling clerics.
Iranian forces fired missiles and drones across the Middle East, killing people in Israel and the United Arab Emirates, in retaliation for the conflict that began on Saturday with the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The US military expanded targets across Iran and said it destroyed the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite unit tasked with preserving the theocracy in place since 1979.
“The IRGC no longer has a headquarters,” US Central Command said in a statement.
The Israeli military said it was carrying out “large-scale strikes” in the heart of Tehran and also bombing across Lebanon against Hezbollah, the armed Shia Muslim movement closely tied to Iran’s Islamic republic.
An AFP journalist heard explosions in Beirut. Hezbollah, which was weakened by an earlier Israeli offensive, said in a statement that it had fired rockets and drones at Israel “in retaliation for the pure blood” of Khamenei.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have urged the overthrow of the Government in Iran, the sworn foe of Israel and the US since the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the pro-Western shah.
Trump, speaking to the New York Times, said the US and Israel could keep up the level of attacks for four to five weeks.
“It won’t be difficult. We have tremendous amounts of ammunition,” he said, adding he had a shortlist of three unnamed people he favoured to lead Iran after the war.
In a video address, Trump urged Iranian security forces “to lay down your arms and receive full immunity or face certain death”.
“It will be certain death,” he repeated. “It won’t be pretty.”
The Pentagon said that three US service members were killed in the operation and five seriously wounded in the operation it has called “Epic Fury.”
“Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends,” Trump said.
“But America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against, basically, civilisation.”
Trump, who campaigned for office denouncing foreign interventions, has done little to explain the case for war to the US public.
Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, said the soldiers’ deaths were the result of a “reckless decision” and that there was no threat to “justify this type of pre-emptive military strikes”.
Iran’s surviving leaders have voiced defiance and said that counter-attacks were justified as self-defence.
In Israel, an Iranian missile attack killed at least nine people and injured dozens more in the central city of Beit Shemesh, after a death the previous day near Tel Aviv.
Three people were also injured on one of the main roads of Jerusalem.
Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose elected role is subordinate to that of the leader, called Khamenei’s killing a “declaration of war against Muslims”.
“Iran considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators,” Pezeshkian said.
Ali Larijani, the powerful head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned: “Today we will hit them with a force that they have never experienced before”.
Israel and the US attacked Iran weeks after authorities ruthlessly crushed mass protests, killing thousands.
The demonstrations, initially sparked by economic anxiety but also including calls for greater social freedoms, were considered one of the most serious threats to the religious state.
Trump called on Iranians to rise up and said, “America is with you”.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah, cautioned Iranians to stay vigilant in the face of air strikes and await the right moment to return to the streets.
But he also urged “nightly chants” against the Islamic republic.
Cheers were heard as some Iranians celebrated reports of the death of Khamenei, but after state media confirmed his killing, pro-government demonstrations also formed, chanting “Death to America!”
Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi to join Pezeshkian on an interim leadership council to lead the country while a permanent successor is found for Khamenei.
While many in the Iranian diaspora cheered Khamenei’s death, anger was seen on the streets of Iran’s neighbour Pakistan where officials said 17 people were killed and protesters tried to storm the US consulate in Karachi.
World leaders have given a mixed reaction to the attack, which came two days after Iran and the US held talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he would let the US use United Kingdom bases for “defensive” strikes but that his country - a steadfast partner in the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - “will not join offensive action now”.
Iran’s first retaliatory strikes on Saturday hit all the Gulf states apart from mediator Oman.
On Sunday local time, Oman’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 after Iran had previously declared the strategic waterway was closed, sending global oil prices spiking.
The Revolutionary Guards claimed to strike the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, but the Pentagon said the “missiles launched didn’t even come close”.
Trump said that US military strikes had sunk nine Iranian naval vessels and partially destroyed its Navy headquarters.
Iran’s retaliatory strikes in the Gulf have killed at least four people and wounded dozens of others.
Inside Iran, the Red Crescent in its last toll issued yesterday said that strikes had killed 201 people and injured hundreds more.
Iran’s judiciary confirmed that Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Khamenei, and General Mohammad Pakpour, the head of Revolutionary Guards, were among those killed.
-Agence France-Presse