Blast rocks Tehran amid latest wave of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes
CBC
As American and Israeli strikes pound Iran — while it attacks shipping and energy infrastructure across the Persian Gulf — U.S. President Donald Trump made a new threat to Tehran's leaders.
"They've been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them," Trump wrote online early Friday. "What a great honor it is to do so!"
The latest attacks come as Israel said it had begun a wave of strikes targeting Iran's infrastructure. The military said that the Israeli air force had hit more than 200 targets in Iran over the past 24 hours, including missile launchers, defence systems and weapons production sites.
At a news conference on Friday, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said that more than 15,000 targets have been struck in Iran, which is more than 1,000 a day since the war began on Feb. 28.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Hegseth said that Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is wounded and "likely disfigured."
Khamenei took over Iran's leadership following his father's death. The younger Khamenei has not been seen or heard from publicly since the war started, leading to speculation about his whereabouts and health condition.
On Thursday, he made his first public statements, resolving to keep fighting, promising more pain for Gulf Arab states and threatening to open "other fronts" in a war that has already disrupted world energy supplies, the global economy and international travel.
Hegseth did not elaborate on or provide evidence on Khamenei's condition.
A large explosion also struck a square in the capital filled with demonstrators for the annual Quds Day event in support of Palestinians, Iranian state television reported.
The cause of the blast in Ferdowsi Square wasn't immediately known, but came shortly after Israel warned people to clear the area because it planned to "conduct operations" there later in the day.
"Your presence in these areas puts your life at risk," the Israeli military warned on its Farsi-language X account.
It wasn't clear how people in Tehran would have been able to see the message, with the internet broadly shut down by Iran's theocracy, though many have workarounds.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The ongoing attacks didn't deter thousands of people taking to the streets for Quds Day, with crowds chanting "death to Israel" and "death to America."
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Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday and warned residents of more than 80 villages to evacuate as the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group said it was ready for an "open war" with Israel in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump has given Americans a short list of his objectives in attacking Iran, but when it comes to the justification for launching the war and how the conflict is expected to play out, he and his team are sending mixed messages.
Omid Golabkesh dragged his suitcase down a long hallway marking the exit of the Kapikoy border crossing in eastern Turkey. He had nearly reached the end of an exhausting journey that included a 12-hour drive to the checkpoint from his home in Tehran.