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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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Footage trickling out of Iran's tightly controlled media landscape seemingly shows celebrations and cheers on the streets of Tehran after Iran confirmed the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in joint U.S.-Israeli strikes.
Iranian state television confirmed the 86-year-old's death early on Sunday after U.S. President Donald Trump said Khamenei had become one of the slew high-profile Iranian military and political figures killed since strikes got underway on Saturday.
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"Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead," Trump declared in a post to his Truth Social platform. Iranian authorities declared 40 days of national mourning and a week of public holidays to commemorate the longtime cleric while vowing a powerful response.
Israeli strikes on Iran continued on Sunday, which Israel's military said hit at the "heart" of Tehran. Iran has retaliated with attacks on U.S. bases and major international hubs in the Middle East, with a second day of explosions rattling through Israel and several America-aligned countries in the region.
Limits on information making it in and out of Iran complicate efforts to judge the mood of Iranian society. While some reports indicate a jubilation to match celebrations that sprang up across the world from late Saturday, state-controlled media said "tens of thousands" of mourners had gathered in central Tehran on Sunday.
Images from state-controlled and Western media showed groups of people in the capital dressed in black, hugging photographs of the slain supreme leader and breaking down in tears. It is difficult to work out the size of the groups or the circumstances in which the images were captured.
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Some witnesses have recounted hearing cheers from rooftops in Tehran, while pictures published by state media appeared to show mourners gathered in Tabriz, in northwestern Iran. Other reports suggested Tehran's streets had emptied of its residents, its population sheltering from continued airstrikes, but social media clips showed people in the capital dancing and car horns blaring in support of the killing of Iran's top cleric.
Elsewhere, at least nine people have been killed in demonstrations against U.S. and Israeli intervention close to the U.S. consulate in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Sunday. Protests also broke out in Iraq.
Meanwhile, critics of the Iranian regime brandishing flags took to the streets in many major cities beyond Iran. Some have celebrated what they believe to be a fresh start for Iran, yet the country's future—including its leadership beyond the coming days—remains unclear. A temporary three-person council in Tehran, closely aligned with the former supreme leader, is at the helm until a successor is chosen by top, cherry-picked officials.
Iran's Red Crescent Society said more than 200 people had been killed across the country so far, including more than 100 people a local prosecutor claimed had been killed in an explosion at a girls' school close to a military base in southern Iran. U.S. forces in the region have said they are aware of the reports and are investigating.
The U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said three of its soldiers had been killed in action and another five injured so far, marking the first known American combat casualties of the operation dubbed "Epic Fury." Trump warned American lives could be lost when announcing the strikes on Saturday.
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In Israel, 11 people are known to have died since early Saturday. At least nine people were killed in an Iranian attack on the town of Beit Shemesh in the center of the country on Sunday, officials said, while a woman caught in a missile strike on Tel Aviv late on Saturday was identified as a 32-year-old Philippine national.
Multiple Gulf states reported fresh explosions on Sunday. The Emirati government said three people had been killed so far in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after fragments from intercepted drones and ballistic missiles damaged several sites in the country. Kuwaiti authorities separately said one person had been killed on its territory.
The UAE said a military base in Abu Dhabi had been targeted on Sunday by Iranian drones, while the major international airports in the city and in Dubai were damaged. Fires broke out at a key port and a luxury hotel in Dubai.
Drones targeted port facilities in Oman, a country that had played a major role in brokering U.S. nuclear talks with Iranian officials, domestic media reported. Bahrain, Jordan and Qatar have been also targeted over the weekend.
Trump warned further Iranian aerial assaults would prompt U.S. troops to hit back at Iran "with a force that has never been seen before."
The U.S. military on Sunday denied reports from Iran claiming Tehran had struck the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier with ballistic missiles. The vessel was moved to the region as part of the vast U.S. military buildup ahead of the strikes.
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