Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 1: An enormous explosion rocked Iran’s capital on 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 Mr Khamenei by the US and Israel.
The biggest disruption to global air transport since the COVID-19 pandemic continued Sunday with thousands of flights affected and busy West Asia’s hubs including Dubai and Doha shuttered as Iran lashed out after U.S.-Israeli strikes.
Residents have reported hearing fresh explosions in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, and Manama on Sunday as Iran continued to fire missiles at countries in the Middle East where US troops are stationed. Media sources also reported several blasts in Dubai, with Abu Dhabi residents reporting loud bangs.
Sirens sounded in Manama, where correspondents heard an explosion, while in the Qatari capital a journalist heard a blast faintly. Visuals showed a hotel struck by an Iranian strike. They could not be verified independently. The reports of explosions continue to stream in for a second day, since the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran over its nuclear programme.
Iran also claimed an oil tanker was sinking after it was struck while attempting to pass through the strategic Strait of Hormuz. “The fate of the offending oil tanker that was struck while attempting to illegally pass through the Strait of Hormuz is that it is now sinking,” Iran’s state TV reported, without elaborating. It carried footage showing heavy black smoke emanating from the burning tanker at sea. The strait carries a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil and a fifth of all liquefied natural gas. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had on Saturday warned that the vital waterway was unsafe due to US and Israeli attacks and was therefore closed to ships.
Sunday’s fresh attacks began after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and President Masoud Pezeshkian declared Khamenei’s killing a “declaration of war against Muslims” and warned: “Iran considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators and masterminds of this historic crime.”
Israel described Khamenei’s death as a “first step”, and military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani boasted that the joint operation “eliminated 40 senior commanders, including Khamenei, in one minute in two different locations over a thousand miles from Israel in broad daylight.”
International reactions to conflict have been mixed, with Pope Leo XIV urging both sides to end “the spiral of violence,” while China condemned Khamenei’s killing as a “serious violation of Iran’s sovereignty.” France, on the other hand, expressed satisfaction at the death of “a bloodthirsty dictator who oppressed his people, degraded women, young people and minorities.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched “Operation Truthful Promise 4,” apparently targeting key U.S. military installations across the Middle East. Majorly, the attack impacts seven U.S. military bases in six middle-eastern countries.
As crowds gathered in Tehran after Khamenei’s death was confirmed, explosions rang out and Israeli military announced that it was again striking targets in the heart of the city — as more blasts were heard in Jerusalem, Riyadh, Dubai, Doha and Manama.
Iran’s first retaliatory strikes on Saturday had hit all the Gulf states apart from Oman, which had sought to mediate U.S.-Iran talks. But on Sunday the country’s commercial port of Duqm was hit by two drones, injuring a foreign worker while a tanker off the sultanate’s coast was also hit.
Outrage at Saturday’s wave of U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran, which killed 86-year-old Khamenei and some other senior figures, spilled over into neighbouring Iraq and Pakistan, where crowds attempted to storm US diplomatic missions. In Iran, the Red Crescent said strikes had left 201 people dead and injured hundreds more.