Waves of Israeli and US air strikes hit Iran on Sunday, a day after the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Israelis spent the day running to protected spaces as Iran responded with missile barrages and sirens sounded every few hours across the country. Iran also targeted pro-American Gulf Arab states with missile and drone attacks.
Sunday’s attacks on Iran focused on headquarters and compounds of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij paramilitary force, the bodies primarily responsible for the recent brutal suppression of anti-regime protesters. A video image was released of a drone attack on a Basij motorcycle unit on the streets of Tehran.
Israel secured a safe air corridor to Tehran – a critical military objective – after destroying Iranian air defence installations. That means US and Israeli planes can operate with impunity over Iran’s capital. Israel’s aim is to extend the corridor to other areas of Iran in the coming days.
“Our forces are now striking the heart of Tehran with increasing strength,” said Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday night. “This will only increase even more in the coming days.”
Iran says casualties are mounting, with “hundreds” of people killed across the country, including 165 fatalities in an explosion at a school in southern Iran, according to Iranian media reports.
US Central Command (Centcom) confirmed on Sunday that three US service members had been killed and five seriously wounded. Centcom also confirmed B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran’s underground ballistic missile storage facilities on Saturday night.
US president Donald Trump has said “America will avenge their deaths” and “deliver the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against, basically, civilisation”.
Israeli security officials inspect the site of an Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday. Amit Elkayam/The New York Times
Trump also said US forces have sunk nine Iranian naval ships and destroyed their headquarters.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump said 48 Iranian leaders had been killed. The most significant was supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose death was confirmed by Iran. His successor is expected to be announced in the coming days.
The US president also suggested the conflict with Iran could go on for the next four weeks, according to the Daily Mail newspaper. In a video address on Truth Social, he said combat operations against Iran would continue until “all objectives are achieved”.
Meanwhile, UK prime minister Keir Starmer said he has accepted a request from US to use British bases for defensive strikes against Iranian missiles in storage depots or launchers.
In a video on X, Starmer said the UK would not join offensive action against Iran, adding: “We all remember the mistakes of Iraq and we have learned those lessons.”
Memorial gatherings were held in Tehran and elsewhere but there were also celebrations, with makeshift gatherings welcoming Khamenei’s death and calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.
Crown prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former shah of Iran, and other diaspora opposition figures, along with Trump, have urged the anti-regime protesters to stay at home until they receive the call to take to the streets, presumably when the military attacks subside.
Donald Trump holds up a fist as he boards Air Force One following delivering an update on Truth Social on the attacks on Iran. Photograph: Eric Lee/The New York Times
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called for the first time for regime change in Iran, saying: “A credible transition in Iran is urgently needed.”
In the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem, at least nine people were killed and more than 50 injured when an Iranian missile struck a shelter directly beneath a synagogue, which was destroyed. The powerful blast and shock wave almost completely demolished eight homes in the residential compound.
Three other people were killed in the Iranian attacks – one when a Tel Aviv residential building was hit on Saturday night, and two more while running to bomb shelters.
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and launched many hundreds of drones towards the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar, causing fatalities and injuries in countries not used to coming under fire.
As the war continued there was the first, tentative indication of contacts to end the violence. Trump said Iran’s new leaders “want to talk”, and he had agreed to speak with them. “They should have done this earlier. They waited too long,” he said, adding that “most” of the Iranians involved in the negotiations so far are “no longer among the living”.