An enormous explosion rocked Tehran on Sunday as the Israeli military said it was striking targets in the Iranian capital, hours after Iran launched missile and drone attacks toward Israel and Gulf Arab states. The violence followed a joint U.S.-Israeli airstrike that officials say killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Saturday — a development that has dramatically raised the risk of wider regional conflict.
The blast sent a towering plume of smoke over Tehran and was felt across the city. Early reports placed the strike in a neighborhood that houses the police headquarters and state television, but initial accounts differed on the precise target. The Israeli military said it was conducting strikes in central Tehran.
Iran’s government declared a period of mourning and vowed retaliation. The cabinet called Khamenei’s killing a “great crime” that “will never go unanswered,” and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned it would mount its “most intense offensive operation” yet against Israeli and American bases. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, addressing the nation on television, said: “You have crossed our red line and must pay the price. We will deliver such devastating blows that you yourselves will be driven to beg.”
U.S. President Donald Trump posted a sharply worded warning on social media, writing: “THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT. IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”
In the immediate aftermath of the initial strikes, an airstrike on a defense meeting in Tehran reportedly killed several senior military figures. Iranian and international accounts said Iran’s army chief of staff and defense minister were among those killed, along with senior Revolutionary Guard officers and a top security adviser to Khamenei.
Iran replied quickly, launching missiles and drones toward Israel and firing at U.S. military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. Israel said it intercepted many of the inbound missiles; Magen David Adom reported one woman died after being wounded by an Iranian missile near Tel Aviv. Air defenses flared throughout the region: residents reported anti-aircraft fire over Dubai and other Gulf cities, flights were disrupted, and shrapnel or debris from intercepted missiles and explosions caused damage and fires in the United Arab Emirates. Emirati state media said one person was killed and there was damage at Dubai’s port and the facade of the Burj Al Arab hotel.
Saudi Arabia said it repelled an attack on its capital and eastern provinces, while Jordan said it intercepted and “dealt with” 49 drones and ballistic missiles.
The confrontation spilled beyond the battlefield. Hundreds of Shiite protesters in Karachi stormed the U.S. consulate, breaking windows before Pakistani police and paramilitary forces dispersed the crowd; local officials reported clashes that left several dead. In the Strait of Hormuz, Oman reported an attack on a Palau-flagged oil tanker, the Skylight, that wounded four crew members; authorities said the ship’s crew were Indian and Iranian. In northern Iraq, a militant group claimed a drone attack “targeting American bases in Erbil,” and smoke was seen near a U.S. facility there.
U.S. and Israeli officials said the operation that killed Khamenei had been planned for months. U.S. Central Command said its strikes targeted Revolutionary Guard command facilities, air defense systems, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields, and reported no U.S. casualties despite “hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks.” Israel’s military said pilots struck “hundreds of targets across Iran,” including military and intelligence sites and government symbols.
The strikes and retaliatory attacks risked severe civilian tolls and wider instability. Iranian officials and state media reported numerous civilian deaths across the country; a provincial governor said at least 115 people were killed when a girls’ school in southern Iran was struck, while the semiofficial IRNA agency reported at least 15 dead in the Lamerd area after homes and public buildings were hit. An Iranian diplomat told the U.N. Security Council that hundreds of civilians had been killed and wounded in the strikes.
The U.S. action drew immediate domestic criticism from some Democrats who argued the president acted without congressional authorization. The White House said it had briefed several congressional leaders in advance.
Analysts warned that disruption to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly a third of seaborne global oil trade passed in 2025 — could jolt global markets if the waterway became unsafe. The strikes mark a dramatic escalation in U.S. intervention in the region, carried out during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and at the start of Iran’s workweek.
Iran moved to stabilize governance after the death of its longtime supreme leader, forming a provisional council to rule until a successor is chosen. State authorities declared 40 days of public mourning and a seven-day holiday; in some parts of Tehran, eyewitnesses told reporters there were scenes of celebration as well as grief. Semiofficial reports said several relatives of Khamenei were among the dead, though those accounts remained unconfirmed by independent sources.
As events continued to unfold, officials across the region and international observers warned that the situation could deteriorate further. With major cities struck, senior commanders killed, and multiple states and nonstate actors drawn in, the coming days will likely determine whether the conflict remains localized or expands into a broader regional war.