DUBAI — An enormous explosion rocked Iran’s capital Sunday as the Israeli military said it was targeting the heart of the city. Earlier, Iran fired missiles at targets in Israel and Gulf Arab states after vowing massive retaliation for the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by the United States and Israel.
The blast in Tehran sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky and shook the ground, AP reported. It wasn’t immediately clear what the target was. The blast appeared centered in a neighbourhood that is home to the country’s police headquarters and Iranian state television. The Israeli military said it was striking targets in central Tehran.
Khamenei’s death in a joint Israeli-American airstrike Saturday on his Tehran office has thrown the future of the Islamic Republic into question and raised the risk of regional instability.
Iran’s Cabinet vowed that this “great crime will never go unanswered” and the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to launch its “most intense offensive operation” ever, targeting Israeli and American bases.
“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.”
US President Donald 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!”
As Israel and the US targeted other top officials, an airstrike on a meeting of the country’s defence council killed Iran’s army chief of staff and defense minister, alongside the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and a top security adviser to Khamenei.
Gen. Abdol Rahim Mousavi and Defense Minister Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh were killed at the meeting, along with Maj. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour took over as the Guard’s top commander after Israel killed its past commander in the 12-day war last June. The adviser, Ali Shamkhani, had long been a figurehead within Iran’s security establishment.
