Key developments on day two of the US-Israeli attacks on Iran
As the area is pushed to the brink by US-Israeli attacks that assassinate Iran's supreme commander, Iran launches retaliation attacks.
Tehran promises to exact "revenge" for the death of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the strikes by the United States and Israel along with his top security personnel.
The death of Khamenei is a major blow to Iran, as since Saturday, attacks have killed over 200 people in 24 of the country's 31 regions. Israel and nearby Gulf nations that house US military equipment have been the targets of Iran's retaliatory strikes.
The strike at Khamenei's Tehran office killed the 86-year-old. The attack also claimed the lives of the supreme leader's grandson, son-in-law, and daughter.
This is all that has transpired thus far on Day 2 in Iran.
A day after Khamenei was murdered in a joint US-Israeli operation, the Israeli military announced on Sunday that it had started hitting targets deep inside Tehran.
The sixth wave of retaliatory "extensive missile and drone" attacks against Israeli military assets and 27 US bases in the Middle East was announced by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The murders of Khamenei, IRGC Commander-in-Chief Muhammad Pakpour, and security adviser Ali Shamkhani were verified by Iran's official media. The new commander-in-chief of the IRGC is Ahmad Vahidi, the Hamshahri daily said. The news could not be independently verified by Al Jazeera.
The attacks also claimed the lives of Aziz Nasirzadeh, the minister of defense, and Abdul Rahim Mousavi, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces.
According to Iran's official TV, a three-person council made up of President Masoud Pezeshkian, the head of the judiciary, and one of the Guardian Council's jurists will temporarily take over all leadership responsibilities in the nation.
Ali Larijani, Iran's top security official, stated that preparations are underway to establish a provisional government to fulfill Khamenei's responsibilities.
The attack on an elementary school for girls in Minab city, southern Iran, has already claimed 148 lives and injured 95 more.
In the major Iranian towns, such as Tehran and Isfahan, Khamenei's fans have flocked to the streets to express their grief at the death of the supreme leader.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the country's highest-ranking official to be seen on camera since Khamenei's murder, referred to the US and Israeli leaders as "filthy criminals" who will face "devastating blows that will force you to plead for help.
Latest from Trump
In a late-night Truth Social post, US President Donald Trump said, "Iran just said that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever been hit before." But they had better not do that, because we would strike them with an unprecedented amount of power, he continued.
Trump stated that he thinks the US is in a stronger position to negotiate a diplomatic settlement with Iran in an interview with CBS News. Trump remarked, "Obviously, it is much simpler now than it was a day before, because they are getting beat up terribly."
Israeli strikes followed by Iranian reprisals
According to the Israeli ambulance service, waves of Iranian missile attacks have killed one Israeli woman and injured 121 others, primarily with minor wounds.
In and around Tel Aviv, air raid sirens are still blaring.
Most of these drones and missiles were intercepted or destroyed, according to the Israeli military, but others made it through in Tel Aviv and the city of Beit Shemesh, which lies west of Jerusalem.
In a new round of attacks, Israel's military claimed to have hit around thirty locations in western and central Iran "to target the ballistic missile array and air defense systems of the Iranian terror government."
The Israeli military statement also stated that attacks on missile sites, air defense installations, military headquarters, and other "regime targets" in Iran would continue.
Iran is still targeting the Gulf region.
On Sunday morning, there were at least eleven explosions heard over Qatar. Following the Iranian strikes, 16 injuries have been reported, according to the Qatari Ministry of Interior.
According to the state news agency, two drones struck Oman's Duqm commercial port on Sunday, injuring one person. The US and Iran were being mediated by Oman.
The Palau-flagged oil tanker Skylight was attacked approximately five nautical miles (9 km) off the coast of Musandam, according to Oman's Maritime Security Center on Sunday. According to preliminary information, four persons were hurt out of the twenty crew members that were evacuated, the statement stated.
Missiles that entered the airspace of Amman, the country's capital, and its northern regions were intercepted by Jordanian defense systems.
Early on Sunday morning, the US embassy in Jordan issued a security alert, advising citizens to stay indoors.
As Iran continues its retaliation attacks against the US allies in the Gulf, sirens have also been heard in Kuwait.
A day after a fire broke out at Dubai's Palm Islands tourist site, further explosions were heard there as well. A fire broke out at Jebel Ali port, a regular stop for US Navy ships in the Gulf, when debris from a drone was collected by Dubai's military.
As demonstrators in Baghdad clashed with security personnel at locations that house the nation's government, parliament, and foreign embassies, Iraq's Muqtada al-Sadr voiced "sadness and sorrow" over Khamenei's death.
Protests have broken out in Pakistan, Indian-administered Kashmir, and neighboring Iraq. In the Pakistani port city of Karachi, riots broke out close to the US embassy, resulting in at least six fatalities and multiple injuries.
In response to Khamenei's death, Iraq has declared three days of nationwide public mourning.
In front of the UN Security Council
The goals of the assaults on Iran, according to US Ambassador Mike Waltz, were to destroy its ballistic missile capabilities, deteriorate its navy capabilities, and make sure that "the Iranian regime can never, ever threaten the world with a nuclear weapon."
The most recent military assaults on Iran were sharply denounced by Russia's UN representative, who described them as "another unprovoked act of armed aggression." "The US and Israeli military operation has been a betrayal of diplomacy," stated Vassily Nebenzia.
China's Ambassador Fu Cong denounced the threat of force and demanded respect for Iran's "sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity," calling the US-Israeli strikes "brazen." The fact that the US and Israeli attacks coincided with diplomatic talks between the US and Iran, he claimed, was "striking."
"Everything must be done" to prevent a larger escalation of violence in the Middle East, the UN Chief stated, adding that the military operation bears the potential of "igniting a sequence of events that no one can control in the most combustible part of the globe."
What is going on at the Strait of Hormuz right now?
While ships in the Gulf reported that the IRGC had warned them that vessels would not be allowed to travel through the vital waterway, Iran took action to seal the Strait of Hormuz.
The IRGC ordered that "no ship is allowed to pass the Strait of Hormuz," according to the Reuters news agency.
The strait is one of the most important oil export routes in the world, with over 20% of global oil consumption passing through it.
