The Pentagon said on Sunday that three US service members were killed and five others wounded during operations against Iran, marking the first American casualties in the joint US-Israeli campaign that resulted in the death of the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, AFP reported.
Meanwhile, Iran carried out a new wave of retaliatory attacks in the Persian Gulf, vowing revenge for the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and putting off President Donald Trump’s warning that any response would be met with overwhelming force, an AFP report said.
As crowds gathered in Tehran, some mourning and others celebrating, explosions rang out and the Israeli military announced it was again attacking targets in the heart of the capital.
“Three US service members were killed in action and five are seriously injured as part of Operation Epic Fury,” the Pentagon said, adding that several others suffered minor shrapnel injuries and concussions. “Major combat operations continue and our response efforts continue.”
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reported a “large-scale” attack on Sunday and explosions were heard in Riyadh, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Manama, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with Israeli emergency services reporting at least nine dead in the city of Beit Shemesh.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian declared Khamenei’s killing a “declaration of war on Muslims” and warned, “Iran considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators and masterminds of this historic crime.”
Israel described Khamenei’s death as a “first step” and military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani boasted that the joint operation “eliminated 40 senior commanders, including Khamenei, in one minute at two different locations more than a thousand miles from Israel in broad daylight.”
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In a social media post that adopted Trump’s style and rhetoric, Ali Larijani, the powerful head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, declared: “Today we will strike them with a force they have never experienced before.”
International reactions were mixed, Pope Leo XIV. he called on both sides to end the “spiral of violence”, while China condemned Khamenei’s killing as a “serious violation of Iranian sovereignty”.
France expressed satisfaction at the death of “a bloody dictator who oppressed his people, degraded women, young people and minorities”.
– An unprecedented threat of force –
Explosions were heard in northern Tehran and smoke could be seen from a building, an AFP journalist said. It was not immediately clear what the target was.
Iranian media also reported that 43 members of the security forces were killed in an attack on the headquarters of a border regiment in the western city of Mehran, near Iraq.
“According to initial reports, this hostile act was carried out by agents of the United States and the Zionist regime,” the Mehr agency said.
Cheers were heard earlier as some Iranians celebrated news of their longtime leader’s death, but pro-government demonstrations chanting “Death to America!” also formed after state media confirmed his killing.
As crowds demanded revenge — and Iran’s military announced attacks on U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf and Iraqi Kurdistan — Trump threatened to unleash “force never seen before” and called on the Iranian people to rise up and seize power.
Iran’s first retaliatory strikes on Saturday hit all Gulf states except Oman, which has sought to mediate talks between the US and Iran.
However, two drones struck the country’s commercial port of Duqm on Sunday, injuring a foreign worker, the Oman News Agency reported.
Two ships were also attacked in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, maritime security agencies said, after Iran earlier said the strategic waterway had been closed.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they hit the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which was deployed in the region ahead of the campaign, but the Pentagon insisted it was not hit, saying “the missiles fired didn’t even come close.”
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Internet monitor Netblocks reported that connections were down for 24 hours in Iran.
Britain urged British citizens in the Gulf region to “shelter in place”, and the US mission in Jordan urged citizens to stay away from embassies and told them in Bahrain to avoid hotels after one was damaged in the strike.
In Iran on Saturday night, the Red Crescent said the strikes had left 201 dead and hundreds injured.
Iranian justice confirmed that Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to Khamenei, and General Mohammad Pakpour, head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, were among those killed.
Iran’s retaliatory strikes in the Middle East killed at least two people in Abu Dhabi and another in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
– Succession Question –
Iran has already experienced intense speculation about Khamenei’s successor, given his age of 86.
After his death, many observers expected more power from the Revolutionary Guards, which are deeply rooted in the Iranian economy.
On Sunday, Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi to join Pezeshkian in the country’s interim leadership council while a permanent successor to the supreme leader is found.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late pro-Western shah deposed in the 1979 Islamic revolution, said any successor within the system would be illegitimate.
Pahlavi celebrated Khamenei’s demise, saying: “With his death, the Islamic Republic has effectively ended and will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.”
Pahlavi, who lived largely in exile near Washington for decades, became a potential bridge to a secular democratic system. However, he lacks broad support from across the spectrum of Iranian opposition groups.
