{"id":323370,"date":"2026-03-01T12:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T12:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/323370\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T12:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T12:02:09","slug":"huge-blast-rocks-tehran-as-israel-targets-iranian-capital-after-khamenei-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/323370\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge blast rocks Tehran as Israel targets Iranian capital after Khamenei killed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A massive explosion has struck Iran\u2019s capital as the Israeli military said it is targeting the \u201cheart\u201d of the city.<\/p>\n

The blast sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky and shook the ground on Sunday. It was not immediately clear what the target was, but the blast appeared to have occurred in an area of Tehran which is home to the country\u2019s police headquarters and state television.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military said it is striking targets in central Tehran. It said on the first day of the war the military cleared the path to the Iranian capital, and on the second day it is striking central Tehran.<\/p>\n

Forty top Iranian military officials have been killed in the ongoing action so far, according to the Israeli military, including the chief of staff for the Iranian armed forces, Abdolrahim Mousavi.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Iran fired missiles at targets in Israel and Gulf Arab states after vowing massive retaliation for the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by the United States and Israel.<\/p>\n

\"DestroyedThe aftermath of an Israeli-US strike in Tehran on Saturday (Amir Kholousi\/ISNA\/AP)<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s rhetoric prompted US President Donald Trump to threaten Tehran against further escalation.<\/p>\n

Iran acknowledged Mr Khamenei\u2019s death in the joint Israeli-American air strike on Saturday at his Tehran office, which has thrown the future of the Islamic Republic into question and raised the risk of regional instability.<\/p>\n

The 86-year-old\u2019s death \u201cshowed that he consistently stood among the people and at the forefront of his responsibilities, confronting what officials call global arrogance,\u201d Iranian state TV said.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump said the killing of Mr Khamenei gave Iranians their \u201cgreatest chance\u201d to \u201ctake back\u201d their country.<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Donald Trump described Khameni as \u2018one of the most evil people in history\u2019 (Michael Gonzalez\/AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cKhamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,\u201d Mr Trump wrote in a social media post.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Cabinet vowed that this \u201cgreat crime will never go unanswered\u201d and the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to launch its \u201cmost intense offensive operation\u201d ever, targeting Israeli and American bases.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have crossed our red line and must pay the price,\u201d Iran\u2019s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a televised address on Sunday. \u201cWe will deliver such devastating blows that you yourselves will be driven to beg.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever hit before,\u201d Mr Trump fired back in a social media post. \u201cTHEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!\u201d<\/p>\n

As Israel and the US targeted other top officials, an air strike on a meeting of the country\u2019s defence council killed Iran\u2019s army chief of staff, Gen Mousavi, and defence minister, alongside the head of Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard and a top security adviser to Mr Khamenei.<\/p>\n

Gen Mousavi and defence minister General Aziz Nasirzadeh were killed at the meeting, along with Major General Mohammad Pakpour, who took over as the Guard\u2019s top commander after Israel killed its past commander in the 12-day war last June. The adviser, Ali Shamkhani, had long been a figurehead within Iran\u2019s security establishment.<\/p>\n

\"ARescue workers and military personnel survey the scene of a direct hit by an an Iranian in Tel Aviv, Israel (Oded Balilty\/AP)<\/p>\n

In a sign that the attack could spread instability throughout the region, at least nine people were killed in clashes with police as hundreds of people stormed the US Consulate in Pakistan\u2019s port city of Karachi on Sunday, smashing windows.<\/p>\n

Police and paramilitary forces used batons and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, said Mohammad Jawad, a police official. Another eight protesters were injured.<\/p>\n

After the initial strikes on Saturday, Iran immediately launched missiles and drones towards Israel and US military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military said Iran fired dozens of missiles at Israel, with many intercepted. The Magen David Adom rescue service said on Saturday night that a woman in the Tel Aviv area died after being wounded in an Iranian missile attack.<\/p>\n

Flights across the Middle East were\u00a0disrupted, and air defence fire thudded over Dubai, the United Arab Emirates\u2019 commercial capital, with explosions continuing into Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

Shrapnel from an Iranian missile attack on the UAE killed one person, state media said, and debris from aerial interceptions caused fires at the city\u2019s main port and on the facade of the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia said Iran targeted its capital and eastern region in an attack that was repelled and Jordan said it \u201cdealt with\u201d 49 drones and ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n

The United Arab Emirates was hit hard by Iranian missiles and drones, particularly Dubai, the Emirates\u2019 commercial hub.<\/p>\n

UAE sought in recent years to deescalate tensions with Iran despite its longtime suspicions of its northern neighbour.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, an adviser to the UAE\u2019s president said Iran \u201cmissed its target\u201d with its attacks on the Arab Gulf states.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour war is not with your neighbours,\u201d Anwar Gargash wrote on X, addressing Tehran.<\/p>\n

\u201cReturn to your senses, to your surroundings, and deal with your neighbours with reason and responsibility before the circle of isolation and escalation widens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strikes could rattle global markets, particularly if Iran makes the Strait of Hormuz unsafe for commercial traffic. A third of worldwide oil exports transported by sea passed through the strait in 2025.<\/p>\n

The attack on Iran opened a stunning new chapter in US intervention, and carried the potential for retaliatory violence and a wider war, representing a startling flex of military might for an American president who swept into office on an \u201cAmerica First\u201d platform and vowed to keep out of \u201cforever wars\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn explosion is seen as an Iranian missile directly hits a building in Tel Aviv (Tomer Neuberg\/AP)<\/p>\n

The killing of Mr Khamenei is the second Trump administration assault on Iran in eight months and appeared certain to create a leadership vacuum, given the absence of a known successor and because the supreme leader had final say on all major policies during his decades in power.<\/p>\n

He led Iran\u2019s clerical establishment and the Revolutionary Guard, the two main centres of power in the governing theocracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country,\u201d Mr Trump said.<\/p>\n

Iran quickly formed a council to govern the country until a new supreme leader is chosen.<\/p>\n

As reports trickled out about Mr Khamenei\u2019s death, eyewitnesses in Tehran told The Associated Press that some residents were rejoicing, cheering from rooftops, blowing whistles and letting out ululations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A massive explosion has struck Iran\u2019s capital as the Israeli military said it is targeting the \u201cheart\u201d of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-323370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}