US and Israel launch new wave of attacks across Iran amid threat of escalation | Iran

Israel and the United States have launched new waves of intense attacks across Iran on the second day of their military campaign to topple the Iranian government, plunging the Middle East into a new regional conflict with no specific timeline or outcome.

The renewed violence on Sunday came amid heated rhetoric from Washington and Tehran that suggested further violence would escalate in the coming hours and days.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States would strike Iran “with unprecedented force” if Tehran threatens to retaliate after the killing of religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday.

“Khamenei, one of the worst people in history, is dead,” Trump wrote in his social media post. “He could not evade our intelligence and our highly advanced surveillance systems, and because he worked closely with Israel there was nothing he or the other leaders killed with him could have done.”

Trump stated that the aim of the military operation, which started with missile and air strikes on Saturday morning, was regime change and called on the “Iranian people to take back their country.”

A massive explosion sent a cloud of smoke into the sky and shook the ground in Tehran on Sunday morning. The explosion occurred near the country’s police headquarters and Iranian state television, as well as the Tehran Revolutionary Court and the defense ministry building.

The Israel Defense Forces said the country’s air force had launched an attack on the “heart of Tehran” and that efforts were focused on destroying Iran’s remaining air defenses.

Hundreds of civilians were killed or injured in US-Israeli strikes, Iranian Ambassador to the UN Amir-Saeid Iravani told an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Saturday. He accused them of deliberately attacking civilian neighborhoods in multiple cities.

The joint US-Israeli attack opens a new chapter in US intervention in the Middle East, bringing with it the possibility of a wider war and months of chaos in the region. The attack was the second time the Trump administration used military force against Iran in eight months.

“This is a really serious and getting worse situation. [with] British Defense Secretary John Healey said on Sunday morning that there was an increasing risk that Iran would escalate indiscriminate retaliatory attacks. Healey accused Iran of “being angry”.

Iran’s retaliation targeted civilian infrastructure and US military bases in the Arab Gulf countries as well as Israel. Eyewitnesses said that violent explosions were heard in Dubai and Doha, the capital of Qatar, for the second day on Sunday.

While clouds of white smoke from missile intercepts appeared in the skies of Dubai, waves of dark smoke rose over the port, one of the busiest in the Middle East.

Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel and airport, which hosts more than 1,000 flights a day, were damaged in Iran’s attacks, which also targeted airports in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait throughout the night.

Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly across Israel early Sunday, and a series of loud explosions were heard in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as Israel’s advanced air defense system tried to thwart Iran’s latest attack.

Analysts have long warned that a war against Iran could lead to global economic turmoil. The Middle East’s major airports, including the world’s busiest international travel hub Dubai, remain closed, causing one of the most serious disruptions to global aviation in recent years.

Ships reported hearing a radio broadcast, allegedly from the Iranian navy, announcing the ban on passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea corridor that is an important transit point for the world’s oil supplies, raising expectations of a sharp increase in oil prices. Authorities in Oman reported damage to at least one oil tanker, but it was not immediately clear who attacked the ship.

There are few details about damage or casualties in Iran, but Iranian officials said more than 100 children were killed at a school in the southern city of Minab.

Iranians across the country said they felt a mixture of fear and hope as the bombings continued. Some expressed relief that the long-awaited attacks were coming, and opponents of the regime expressed hope that they could lead to political change; but both have relented over fears that the attacks would lead to more civilian deaths in a country already reeling from recent bloodshed.

State television said Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, accused the United States and Israel of trying to plunder and disintegrate Iran and warned “separatist groups” of a harsh response if they tried to intervene.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf said Netanyahu and Trump “crossed the red line” and “they will pay the price for it,” according to state media.

Senior Iranian officials said an interim leadership group would be appointed, and Galibaf also said Iran would “continue Khamenei’s path.”

Iran’s leaders have faced multiple crises in recent months, including an economy hit by U.S. and other sanctions, mass protests that were bloodily suppressed in January, and a severe weakening of regional proxies due to Israeli attacks.

Trump said the airstrikes were aimed at ending the decades-old threat from Iran and ensuring that Iran cannot develop nuclear weapons.

“This is justice not only for the people of Iran, but also for all great Americans and people from many countries around the world who were killed or maimed by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty thugs,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have called on Iranians to overthrow the radical religious regime that came to power after the 1979 revolution against the Shah.

Analysts in Israel said many Israeli officials appeared convinced that Khamenei’s death would lead to an almost instantaneous uprising across the country.

But while the deaths of Khamenei and other Iranian leaders will undoubtedly weaken the regime, Iran’s rulers still enjoy strong support among parts of the 93 million population, and key institutions such as the powerful and ideologically committed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps remain loyal.

The US and Israeli offensive has shaken much of the Islamic world and triggered protests on Sunday in Pakistan, where police clashed with protesters who breached the outer wall of the US consulate in Karachi, killing nine people, and outside the Green Zone in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, where the US embassy is located.