Hours after both nations said an air strike killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the military campaign to overthrow the government of the Islamic Republic, its state media confirmed the 86-year-old leader's death on Saturday.
A source briefed on the Israeli campaign told Reuters there had been no change in military strategy after the killing of Khamenei and that strikes would continue to target Iranian officials and missile infrastructure.
In another blow for Iran's leaders, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi was killed in strikes, broadcaster Iran TV said.
Iran, which has said it would target U.S. bases if attacked, hit a range of targets, keeping the major oil-producing Gulf on edge.
Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly across Israel early on Sunday, with a series of explosions heard in Tel Aviv as Israel’s sophisticated air defense system sought to intercept the latest Iranian offensive.
The United States will hit Iran "with a force that has never been seen before," U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Sunday, if the Middle East nation hit back after the strikes.
Trump said the air strikes aimed to end a decades-long threat from Iran and ensure it could not develop a nuclear weapon.
He sought to justify a risky gambit that seemed to contradict his professed opposition to American involvement in complex overseas conflicts.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Iranians to pursue a rare chance to topple their clerical leaders.
The leadership had already been under pressure from an economy hammered by sanctions, protesters who proved ready again to take to the streets despite fierce crackdowns and regional proxies severely weakened by Israeli attacks.
Experts said that while the deaths of 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, Reuters reported.
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Source: Reuters