Fresh attacks come as Iran prepares for funeral of late supreme leader
Israel said it had launched a “broad wave of strikes” against government targets in Tehran, including the presidential office. A loud blast was reported in the north-east of Tehran on Wednesday morning, as explosions rocked Iranian cities for a fourth night.
Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon continues, with strikes reported in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, seen as a support base for the militant group Hezbollah.
Iran continues to launch retaliatory strikes, with Iran’sIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)saying it fired about 40 missiles at US and Israeli targets.
A funeral ceremony is to be held in Tehran for the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to state media. Supporters of the late Khamenei, who was killed in the US-Israeli strikes on Saturday, will gather at the prayer hall of the Grand Mosalla of Tehran on Wednesday at 10pm (6.30pm GMT) to begin a three-day commemoration ceremony.
Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has emerged as the frontrunner toreplace his father as Iran’s supreme leader, the New York Times has reported, citing Iranian officials. The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said his military would attempt to kill any Iranian leader appointed to succeed Khamenei.
Global oil and gas prices have spiked as the war halted energy exports from the Middle East. Iran has attacked ships and energy facilities, closing navigation in the Gulf and forcing production stoppages from Qatar to Iraq.
The conflict has caused turbulence on global markets. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 continued to fall on Wednesday, and was down about 3.9% during early trading. In Seoul, the Kospi – which dropped 7.2% on Tuesday – fell by a further 8.1% before trading was suspended on Wednesday. But Wall Street looks set to open only marginally lower in New York, according to pre-market trading data.
The US navy could begin escorting oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz if necessary, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, in one of the administration’s most aggressive steps yet to attempt to contain soaring energy prices sparked by the war.
The US military has claimed that the number of strikes carried out on Saturday in the first 24 hours of its war on Iran was nearly double that of the “shock-and-awe” strikes on Iraq in 2003, and that nearly 2,000 targets had been hit so far in Iran. Cooper also said the US was also sinking “all of the Iranian navy” and had already destroyed 17 Iranian ships.
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