Bold Overview: The US-Israel strikes on Iran have escalated to a perilous flashpoint, with Tehran vowing revenge as the region edges toward a wider confrontation. This explainer recaps Day 2 events, clarifying what happened, who was affected, and the international reactions.
Inside Iran
- Israel says it began striking targets deep inside Tehran, following a US-Israel operation that killed Iran’s supreme leader the day before.
- Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced a sixth, broad wave of missile and drone attacks targeting Israeli military assets and 27 US bases across the Middle East in retaliation.
- State media confirmed the deaths of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, security adviser Ali Shamkhani, and IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohammad Pakpour. Reports named Ahmad Vahidi as the new IRGC commander, though independent verification was not possible.
- Other senior officials, including the armed forces chief of staff Abdul Rahim Mousavi and Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, were killed in the strikes.
- A three-person leadership council—comprising Iran’s president, the head of the judiciary, and a Guardian Council jurist—will temporarily assume leadership duties, per state television.
- Plans reportedly exist to form a temporary governing body to carry out Khamenei’s duties, according to Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani.
- Casualties rose from an attack on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, with 148 dead and 95 injured.
- Khamenei’s supporters flooded major cities, including Tehran and Isfahan, to mourn the supreme leader.
- Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the highest-ranking official seen on camera since the killing, denounced US and Israeli leaders as “filthy criminals” and warned of coming
