Dubai: Iran vowed revenge Sunday after the assassination of its supreme leader and traded strikes with Israel as part of a widening war prompted by a surprise US and Israeli air raids a day earlier.
Blasts in Tehran sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky in an area where there are government buildings. Iranian authorities say more than 200 people have been killed since the start of the US and Israeli strikes that also targetted the office of the Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei.
Earlier, Iran fired barrage of missiles at an ever-widening list of targets in Israel and Gulf Arab states in retaliation while Israel vowed “non-stop” strikes against Iran’s leaders and military.
In Israel, loud explosions caused by missile impacts or interceptions could be heard in Tel Aviv. Israel’s rescue services said eight people were killed and 28 wounded in a strike that hit a synagogue in the central town of Beit Shemesh, bringing the overall death toll in the country to 10. The figure could not be verified as Israel has imposed censorship on war reporting.
The US military said three service members have been killed and five others seriously wounded since the operations began. They are the first known American casualties from the fighting.
The strikes and counterattacks underscored how the killing of Ayatrollah Khamenei, and US President Donald Trump’s calls for the overthrow of the decades-old Islamic Republic, carried the potential for a prolonged conflict that could envelop the Middle East.
It’s the second time in eight months that the US and Israel have teamed up to launch attack on Iran, and a startling show of military might for an American president who swept into office on an “America First” platform and vowed to keep out of “forever wars.”
In the 12-day war in June, Israeli and American strikes greatly weakened Iran’s air defences, military leadership and nuclear program. But the killing of 86 yerar old leader, creates a leadership vacuum, increasing the risk of regional instability.
Iran vows revenge
“You have crossed our red line and must pay the price,” Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said in a televised address Sunday. “We will deliver such devastating blows that you yourselves will be driven to beg.”
Trump warned that any retaliation would only lead to further escalation.
“THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT,” Trump fired back in a social media post. “IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”
In a sign of how the attack could stoke regional unrest, hundreds of people stormed the US Consulate in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi on Sunday. Police and paramilitary forces used batons and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, and at least nine people were killed in the clashes, authorities said.
In southern Iran, at least 148 school; children were killed when a girls’ school was struck, and dozens more were wounded, the local governor told Iranian state TV.
