The body of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s slain supreme leader, will be on display starting Wednesday night in Tehran, signalling the beginning of the funeral process as the country escalates retaliatory attacks against Israel and U.S. military bases in the region.
Iran’s state television announced that the farewell viewing would last for three days and be held in a large compound in central Tehran, where the former leader often delivered public speeches and led prayers.
Also Wednesday, Iran’s senior Shiite clerics pressed on in the search for his successor. An announcement could come later in the day, and Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, the son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was considered a front-runner, according to three Iranian officials familiar with the deliberations.
The new leader would take the helm not just as Iran’s new religious and political authority but as the commander in chief of its armed forces.
On Tuesday, President Trump said that many of Iran’s potential new leaders had been killed in the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign that began on Saturday. He added that the next supreme leader could be “as bad” as their predecessors — a striking admission of uncertainty over how the war will unfold and what will follow it.
The Israeli and U.S. bombardment of Iran continued early Wednesday, as did Iran’s retaliatory missile and drone barrage across the Gulf region. The Israeli military said it had launched attacks on dozens of targets belonging to the Basij, a state-run Iranian paramilitary force, and the country’s internal security forces.
The Basij played a major role in the deadly crackdown on the recent antigovernment protests in Iran.
The Israeli military said that projectiles from Iran and Lebanon were identified crossing into the country, but that most were intercepted. Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said it had intercepted and destroyed two cruise missiles and ten drones. The source of those attacks was not immediately clear.
Several countries were struggling to get hundreds of thousands of people out of the region. The State Department said it was facilitating charter fights from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, after President Trump was asked on Tuesday why the government was not helping Americans evacuate. It later said that nonessential government employees and the families of all employees in Saudi Arabia and Oman were authorized to leave those countries because of safety risks.
Latest updates on the ongoing conflict:
- Trump letter: In a letter to Congress, Trump said the strikes on Iran were carried out because of “the threat to the United States” and U.S. forces in the region, and to advance U.S. national interests and “in collective self-defence of our regional allies, including Israel.” He also said it was “not possible at this time to know the full scope and duration of military operations that may be necessary.” Officials with access to U.S. intelligence have said that Trump exaggerated the immediacy of any threat Iran posed to the United States.
- Navy escorts? President Trump said the United States might deploy its Navy to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway south of Iran through which a fifth of the world’s oil travels. Tanker traffic through the strait has nearly stopped because of the fear the ships might be attacked.
- Death toll: The Red Crescent Society, Iran’s main humanitarian relief organization, said the death toll had risen to 787 since the start of the U.S.-Israeli attacks. The bombing of a girls’ elementary school in Iran killed at least 175 people. Dozens of people in Lebanon also have been killed, according to the Lebanese health ministry, in Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah.
- Americans killed: Six U.S. service members have been killed in the conflict. The Defense Department released the names of four Army Reserve soldiers who were killed over the weekend in Kuwait in a drone attack on U.S. military facilities. The slain soldiers were Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Fla.; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Neb.; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minn.; and Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa. All four were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command in Des Moines, Iowa.
- U.S. damage: Iranian strikes conducted over the weekend and on Monday damaged structures that are part of or near communication and radar systems on at least seven U.S. military sites across the Middle East, according to a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery and verified videos. (New York Times)