More strikes aimed at Iran after Khamenei’s death, Trump issues new warning

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DUBAI/JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON – Israel said on March 1 that it had launched another wave of attacks on Iran, as Iranians grappled with uncertainty after the death of their supreme leader from US and Israeli strikes.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump warned of deadly consequences if Iran retaliates.

Hours after the United States and Israel said an air strike had killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as part of the

most ambitious series of attacks

on Iran in decades, Iranian state media confirmed the 86-year-old leader’s death.

In another blow for Iran’s leaders, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi was killed in strikes, broadcaster Iran TV said.

Mr Trump said the air strikes on Iranian targets were aimed at ending a decades-long threat from Iran and ensuring it could not develop a nuclear weapon as he sought to justify a risky gambit that seemed to go against his professed opposition to American involvement in complex overseas conflicts.

Israel’s military said its strikes on March 1 targeted Iran’s ballistic missile and air defence systems. Iranian state media said an explosion was heard in Tehran.

Mr Trump warned on March 1 the US will hit Iran “with a force that has never been seen before” if the Middle East nation retaliates against the strikes.

“Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever been hit before,” he said in a post on Truth Social.

He added in all-caps: “They better not do that, however, because if they do, we will hit them with a force that has never been seen before!”

Israel and the US had timed the attacks to coincide with a meeting of Mr Khamenei and his top aides, according to two US sources and a US official familiar with the matter.

Mr Khamenei was working in his office when the attack occurred on the morning of Feb 28, Iranian state media said, adding that his daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law were also killed.

Iran’s top security official, Mr Ali Larijani, said a temporary leadership council would be set up.

He accused the US and Israel of trying to plunder and disintegrate Iran, and warned “secessionist groups” of a harsh response if they attempt action, state television said.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mr Amir Saeid Iravani, told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Feb 28 that hundreds of civilians had been killed and injured in the US and Israeli strikes. He called Iran’s retaliatory attacks a matter of self-defence, saying the bases of hostile forces are legitimate military targets.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, told the council that he deeply regretted that an opportunity for diplomacy had been “squandered”.

Oman, Dubai and Doha under attack

Oman was hit for the first time on March 1 as Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Gulf nations widened. The commercial port Duqm was targeted by two drones, wounding one worker, the state news agency said.

Its maritime security centre also said the Palau-flagged oil tankeer Skylight was attacked about five nautical miles off Oman’s Musandam peninsula.

On Feb 28, Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones in response to the initial attacks, targeting US troops in the region and cities in Israel and Arab countries allied with Washington, leading to widespread flight cancellations in the region.

Several loud blasts were heard for a second day on March 1 in regional business hub Dubai and over Qatar’s capital of Doha, witnesses said, after Iran launched retaliatory strikes.

Puffs of white smoke from missile interceptions were glimpsed in the skies over Dubai, while billows of dark smoke rose over its port of Jebel Ali, one of the busiest in the Middle East.

Earlier,

Dubai’s international airport and its landmark Burj Al Arab hotel sustained damage,

with four people injured. Abu Dhabi Airports said in a post on X that an incident at Zayed International Airport in the UAE’s capital resulted in one fatality involving an Asian national and seven injuries. It later deleted the post.

Air raid sirens also sounded repeatedly across Israel early on March 1, with a series of explosions heard in Tel Aviv as Israel’s sophisticated air defence system sought to intercept the latest Iranian offensive.

There was no immediate report of damage or injuries.

Iran leaders under pressure

Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu have told Iranians to pursue a rare chance to topple their clerical leaders. They called on Iranians to rise up and overthrow their government in the wake of the attacks, which took out at least seven senior military commanders, according to Israel’s military.

The Iranian leadership had been under pressure from an economy hammered by sanctions, protesters who proved ready again to take to the streets despite bloody crackdowns, and regional proxies severely weakened by Israeli attacks.

Experts said that while the deaths of Mr Khamenei and other Iranian leaders would deal the country a major blow, it would not necessarily spell the end of Iran’s entrenched clerical rule or the sway of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps over the population.

Iran’s Speaker of Parliament said the government had prepared for “all scenarios”, including the way forward, after the death of Mr Khamenei.

“We have prepared ourselves for these moments and have considered all scenarios,” Mr Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a video carried on state TV, adding the US and Israeli leaders have “crossed our red lines” and “will suffer the consequences”.

Iran could face days more of targeted strikes. On March 1, the Revolutionary Guards vowed that Iran’s armed forces would soon retaliate again with their biggest offensive against US bases and Israel.

Massive global aviation disruption

Major Middle Eastern airports, including Dubai, the world’s busiest international travel hub, were shut on Feb 28 after Iran’s missile retaliation unleashed one of global aviation’s most severe disruptions in years.

Thousands of flights have been affected across the Middle East, according to data on FlightAware, a flight tracking platform.

The airport closures have rippled far beyond the Middle East. Dubai and neighbouring Doha sit at the crossroads of east-west air travel, funnelling long-haul traffic between Europe and Asia through tightly scheduled networks of connecting flights. With those hubs idle, aircraft and crews remained stranded out of position, disrupting airline schedules worldwide.

“It’s the sheer volume of people and the complexity,” said UK-based aviation analyst John Strickland. “It is not only customers, it is the crews and aircraft all over the place.”

Shipping has also been badly affected – the region is a major supplier of oil and liquefied natural gas.

Tehran warned on Feb 28 that

the Strait of Hormuz,

the narrow passage through which around a fifth of global oil consumption passes, had been closed, raising concerns of a sharp jump in oil prices.

The OPEC+ grouping of major oil producers is set to meet on March 1 and may consider a larger-than-planned output increase as several tanker owners, oil majors and trading houses suspended energy shipments through the Strait. REUTERS, AFP