The bombings by the United States and Israel against Iran and Tehran’s military response have caused a war in the Middle East with unpredictable consequences. On its second day, the Islamic Republic has sworn revenge for the death on the eve of its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneiand has responded with the launch of hundreds of drones and missiles against Israel and US bases in the area. Three American soldiers and a dozen Israeli civilians have died in these attacks. Donald Trump stated this Sunday that the US military has sunk nine ships and that 48 Iranian leaders have died, while declaring that the offensive could last “four weeks, or less.” The Israeli army is attacking “the heart of Tehran with increasing intensity,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hundreds of people have died in Iran, although there is no official death toll.
The United States has suffered its first casualties in Operation Epic Fury: three soldiers have died, five have been seriously injured and an unspecified number have suffered minor injuries, as announced by the Pentagon, which has hardly offered any further details. In a video similar to the one he recorded on Saturday to announce the beginning of the attacks, Trump has acknowledged that “sadly, there may be more” deaths among the American ranks in the coming days, and has promised to avenge the deaths. He has also assured that the operation will continue “until we have achieved all our objectives, and we have very powerful objectives.”
In Iran, where tens of thousands of people mourn the death of Khamenei in the streets, the regime has named the triumvirate that will lead the country until the appointment of the Ayatollah’s successor. He ruled with an iron fist for almost four decades. A red flag, a symbol of revenge, already shines on the dome of the Jamkaran mosque, in the city of Qom, a prominent center of Shiite studies and pilgrimage. Since morning, the Iranian army has launched several waves of missiles against Israel. At least nine civilians have died from the impact of one of them in a synagogue in the town of Beit Shemesh30 kilometers from Jerusalem. The projectile even penetrated the shelter where the neighbors had sought shelter.
Meanwhile, Israeli aircraft have bombed Tehran for the second consecutive day. “In the coming days we will attack thousands of targets of the terrorist regime. We will create conditions for the brave people of Iran to free themselves from the chains of tyranny,” Netanyahu declared this Sunday. The Fars agency, linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, has reported “several massive explosions” this Sunday in an area where the headquarters of institutions and ministries are located. Late in the day, the Central Command of the United States military announced the destruction of the headquarters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Trump is euphoric about the progress of the offensive. At Mar-a-Lago, his private residence in Florida, the president said in an interview with the magazine The Atlantic that the new Iranian leaders have asked him to dialogue, and he has shown himself open to doing so. “They want to talk, and I’ve agreed to talk, so I’ll talk to them. They should have done it sooner. They’ve waited too long.” However, he did not want to specify when these talks could take place. In a second interview, for the Fox television network, Trump calculated that in the first wave of attacks, US and Israeli forces killed 48 senior leaders of the regime, including Khamenei. He later specified, in conversation with the Daily Mail, that the conflict could last “four weeks, or less.” “We have always estimated that it would be a four-week process or so. It is a big country,” he declared.
The US president has assured that the offensive is going better than expected. “It’s moving quickly. Nobody can believe the success we’re having. 48 leaders eliminated in one fell swoop. And it’s moving quickly,” he said in comments by phone. In announcing the start of the attacks on Saturday, Trump had warned of the likelihood that the offensive, already longer than previous military interventions which he has ordered during his mandate, could leave his country’s troops dead.
The Central Command of the United States Army estimates that, since the beginning of the operation, a thousand Iranian targets have been hit, including the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, air defense systems, warships and military communications networks.
Israel is also optimistic about the proximity of the objective: the fall of the regime that emerged from the 1979 revolution. A senior Israeli official has predicted that the Ayatollahs’ Government will soon lose the ability to confront the protesters if they take to the streets again, unlike the repression it used at the beginning of the year and which left at least 3,000 dead. “To create the necessary conditions to overthrow the regime, it is necessary to eliminate anyone who undermines the ability to overthrow it and that is what we are focused on,” the source told Channel 12 television. “Very soon, the Iranian people will receive the signal to leave their homes; the Iranians will understand it and see it with their own eyes.”
Some ministers have been given an estimate that the operation will last a week, but it all depends on the ability of the Tehran regime to survive the loss of its supreme leader and the constant crushing of its leaders and institutions. At the moment, Israel has mobilized 100,000 reservists, in addition to the 50,000 reservists currently in service. The objective is to reinforce ground troops inside the country and on the borders of Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.
The most symbolic movement in this direct bet by the US and Israel for the overthrow was the death of Khamenei. The Israeli army indicated this Sunday in a statement that “it was the target of a precise and large-scale operation” carried out by its air force. Also in a note, the Israeli Armed Forces have put the high-ranking targets eliminated by their bombs during the operation at 40. “A historic attack that was possible thanks to the intelligence guidance of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF),” the note says. “Likewise, the IDF has dismantled most of the air defense systems in western and central Iran and is paving the way toward establishing air superiority over the skies of Tehran,” the military statement continued.
The United States had been monitoring Khamenei’s movements for months and increasingly knew where he usually was and what his behavior patterns were, according to the newspaper The New York Times. When US intelligence services learned on Saturday that he was meeting with other senior officials and, almost certainly, that he was at the compound, they passed the information to Israel, which carried out the attack, in which his daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law also died.
In addition to Ayatollah Khamenei, the victims include seven senior officials of the Iranian regime, including Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh and Revolutionary Guard commander Mohamed Pakpur. Iranian forces responded Saturday by launching missiles and drones at U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, Jordan, Iraq, as well as Israel. This Sunday, Iran also fired against the only member of the Gulf Cooperation Council that had not yet attacked: Oman, the country that acted as a mediator between Washington and Tehran in recent weeks. Several countries in the region keep their airspace closed and tens of thousands of flights have been delayed or cancelled.
In a post on his social network, Truth, Trump announced this Sunday that the US military has destroyed Iran’s naval headquarters and sunk nine of its warships, “several of them relatively large and important.” Shortly before, the Central Command had reported the sinking of a corvette from the enemy country.
In Iran’s deadliest blow to Israel in two days of war and in full revenge for the death of its supreme leader, the fall of a missile on a municipal shelter It has caused at least nine deaths and 28 injuries, two of them in critical condition, according to health services. The excavators are still searching for the missing, in the midst of the destruction, which affected houses and cars dozens of meters away.
With Iran guarding Khamenei’s body, Trump has threatened to attack him with “a force never seen before” if he fulfills his promise to avenge the death. “You better not do it,” he warned in a message on his social network.
In remarks directed at Trump and Netanyahu, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said: “We will deal you blows so terrible that you yourselves will be forced to beg.” “I say to Trump, to Netanyahu, to their agents and proxies, I repeat, I say to these two filthy criminals and all their agents: you have crossed our red line and you must pay the price.”
Tehran, meanwhile, confirmed this Saturday morning the death of other of its leaders that Israel had already considered “eliminated” the day before, as it usually calls them.
The regime has named the triumvirate that will lead the country until the appointment of Khamenei’s successor with the appointment of Alireza Arafi, 67, as representative of Islamic jurists in the Leadership Council of Iran, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. That body will perform the functions of the supreme leader until the cleric who will occupy that position is appointed, reports Trinidad Deiros Bronte.
The other two members of the Leadership Council are the president of the country, the pragmatist Masud Pezeshkián, and the president of the Judiciary, the hard-line ultra-conservative Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei.
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