Tehran launches fresh retaliatory attacks as it confirms death of decades-long leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes
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Where things stand
• Supreme leader killed: Iran says it views revenge for Saturday’s US-Israeli attacks as its “legitimate right and duty” after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. US President Donald Trump indicated the strikes would continue through the week. Iran says one attack killed over 100 girls at an elementary school near a military base.
• Retaliatory strikes: Israel says it has carried out a new wave of strikes “in the heart of Tehran,” as Iran unleashes fresh attacks after Khamenei’s killing. Iran has already attacked US military bases, Israel and targets across the region. The conflict has damaged air hubs, rocked densely populated areas and disrupted oil shipments.
• Celebration and condemnation: The contrast of celebrations and mourning highlights deep divides in Iran. Across the US, people took to the streets, with some celebrating and others protesting the strikes on Iran.AllCatch UpAnalysis
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Putin calls Khamenei’s killing a “cynical murder” that violates international law
By Hazel Oliva
In his first official comments since US-Israeli strikes on Iran and ensuing retaliatory strikes, Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the targeted killing of Iran’s supreme leader a “cynical murder,” Russian state media agency TASS reported.
The Russian leader described Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death as a murder that violated “all norms of human morality and international law,” according to TASS.
Putin said Khamenei would be remembered in Russia as an “outstanding statesman.”
Moscow and Tehran have long been key allies, with Iran providing Russia with military support including drones and ballistic missiles, and helping Moscow build a drone-manufacturing facility, amid its war on Ukraine.
It comes after Russia’s foreign ministery yesterday condemned the US and Israeli strikes on Iran, calling them a “reckless step” and an “unprovoked act of armed aggression.”
British defense secretary says Iran lashing out “indiscriminately” across Middle East
By Hazel Oliva
Defence Secretary John Healey speaks to the media outside BBC Broadcasting House in London on Sunday. Jonathan Brady/PA Images/Alamy/SIPA
Britain’s defense secretary said the Iranian regime is responding to the US-Israeli strikes with “indiscriminate” attacks across the Middle East, including by targeting British military assets in the region.
“The concern now is that this regime is lashing out, it’s lashing out in an increasingly indiscriminate and widespread way,” John Healey told Sky News on Sunday.
Healey said there were 300 personnel at Britain’s base in Bahrain, which was targeted Saturday by Iranian missiles and drones. Some of the personnel were “within a few hundred yards” of where the missiles and drones landed, he said.
Also on Saturday, two missiles were “fired in the direction of Cyprus,” he said.
“We don’t think they were targeted at Cyprus,” he clarified. “But nevertheless it’s an example of how there is a very real and rising threat from a regime that is lashing out widely across the region, and that requires us to act … defensively.”
The defense secretary also said the Iranian regime was a “source of evil” in the region, listing a string of ways in which it has “menaced” countries abroad and cracked down on its citizens at home.
“Twenty terror plots directed at Britain, sponsored by Iran; tens of thousands of young people, protesters, murdered on the streets in the last few months in Iran; 57,000 Iranian drones fired by Russia into Ukraine; proxy groups that destabilize countries right across the region,” Healey said.
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