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The EU warned Sunday against a prolonged war in the Middle East, saying further escalation could threaten Europe and beyond, as it urged Iran to refrain from indiscriminate retaliation after US-Israeli strikes.Foreign ministers from the bloc’s 27 nations — most of which are NATO members — held extraordinary talks via video link on day two of an assault that killed Iran’s supreme leader, as EU chief Ursula von der Leyen called for a “credible transition” in the country. Two French vessels would reinforce the EU’s naval mission in the Red Sea as Iran’s retaliatory strikes threatened maritime traffic, a European diplomat said after the meeting.”The Middle East stands to lose greatly from any drawn-out war,” the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said, speaking on behalf of member states after the talks.”The events unfolding in Iran must not lead to an escalation that could threaten the Middle East, Europe and beyond, with unpredictable consequences, also in the economic sphere.”Writing on social media after calls with several Middle East leaders, von der Leyen said the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spurred “renewed hope for the people of Iran” but also carried “a real risk of instability”.The Islamic republic launched a new round of attacks across the Gulf on Sunday after vowing to avenge the supreme leader.NATO said its top commander in Europe was “closely” following developments in the Middle East and adjusting forces as needed to defend against “potential threats” — citing in particular “ballistic missiles or unmanned aerial vehicles, emanating from this or other regions”.The commander, US General Alexus Grynkewich, was speaking “actively and regularly” with military leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, and with NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte, the alliance said.- ‘Credible transition’ -A European diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP the additional French vessels would bring to five the warships taking part in the EU’s Aspides mission in the Red Sea.EU foreign ministers were expected to meet again in the coming days for talks with their Gulf counterparts, the source added.Von der Leyen said Brussels was engaging closely “with all key actors” to safeguard stability and security.”The risk of further escalation is real. This is why a credible transition in Iran is urgently needed,” she wrote on X, calling for a “lasting solution” after speaking with Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.”This must mean the halt of Iran’s military nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and the end of destabilising actions on air, land and at sea.” Von der Leyen also spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.Likewise, Kallas said she was in contact with regional partners “that bear the brunt of Iran’s military actions” to find practical steps for de-escalation.”The death of Ali Khamenei is a defining moment in Iran’s history,” she wrote on X.”What comes next is uncertain. But there is now an open path to a different Iran, one that its people may have greater freedom to shape”.

The United States said Sunday it had destroyed the headquarters of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard force but also announced the first US fatalities in the war to overturn the Iranian government.US Central Command, or CENTCOM, announced the Guard headquarters destruction in a statement on X accompanied by video of missiles blasting from a US Navy ship, then pulverizing an urban compound.”America has the most powerful military on earth, and the IRGC no longer has a headquarters,” CENTCOM said.As missiles continued to rain on Tehran, President Donald Trump said the war could go on for a month, telling the Daily Mail that “it’s always been a four week process.”The US-Israeli campaign began Saturday with bombing that killed Iran’s supreme leader. Iran has retaliated with missile and drone attacks on countries across the Middle East, with explosions reported in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Israel.Iran is publicly defiant in the face of the US and Israeli bombardment, but Trump told The Atlantic magazine that its surviving leaders “want to talk” — although he was vague about details.The Pentagon reported that “three US service members have been killed in action and five are seriously wounded”, adding several others had sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions. “Major combat operations continue and our response effort is ongoing,” it said.Underlining the political risks back home for Trump, the 79-year-old Republican took hours to react to the US deaths, before telling NBC News: “We expect casualties, but in the end it’s going to be a great deal for the world.”- Iran strikes back -Loud explosions shook Tehran on Sunday.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced its own “large-scale” attack as it launched missiles and drones at installations around the Gulf.An attack on the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh killed at least nine people, with others still missing, authorities said.Ali Larijani, the powerful head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, declared: “Today we will hit them with a force that they have never experienced before.”And Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian declared the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a “declaration of war against Muslims.”    He warned: “Iran considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators and masterminds of this historic crime.”But Israel described Khamenei’s death as a “first step”, and military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani boasted that the joint operation “eliminated 40 senior commanders, including Khamenei, in one minute.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli attacks on Iran “will only escalate in the days ahead.”The Israeli military announced it was mobilizing around 100,000 reservists and “raising its level of readiness on the various fronts” as part of the campaign. – Gulf states caught in conflict -Iran’s first retaliatory strikes on Saturday hit all the Gulf states apart from Oman, which had sought to mediate US-Iran talks. On Sunday the country’s commercial port of Duqm was hit by two drones, injuring a foreign worker, the Oman News Agency said.Three ships were also attacked in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, maritime security agencies said, after Iran had previously declared the strategic waterway was closed.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed to strike the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, but the Pentagon said the “missiles launched didn’t even come close”.Trump, meanwhile, said that US military strikes had sunk nine Iranian naval vessels and partially destroyed its navy headquarters.Britain urged UK citizens in the Gulf region to “shelter in place”, while the US mission in Jordan urged citizens to stay away from the embassy, and in Bahrain told them to avoid hotels after one was damaged in a strike.  Iran’s retaliatory strikes in the Gulf have killed at least four people and wounded dozens of others.The UAE, where three people were killed, said it was withdrawing its ambassador from Iran and closing its embassy over the attacks.In Iran, the Red Crescent said on Saturday evening that strikes had killed 201 people and injured hundreds more.Iran’s judiciary confirmed that Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Khamenei, and General Mohammad Pakpour, the head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, were among those killed.- Question on succession -Cheers were heard as some Iranians celebrated reports of the death of Khamenei, but after state media confirmed his killing, pro-government demonstrations also formed, chanting “Death to America!”On Sunday, Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi to join Pezeshkian on an interim leadership council to lead the country while a permanent successor is found for the supreme leader.One Tehran resident in her 30s said people had “shouted for joy,” even in the midst of a war.She said Khamenei’s hands were stained with blood, and recalled that Iranian security forces crushed mass protests in January. “We all realized that there is no way, absolutely no way, to reform this regime except through foreign intervention,” she added.But one truck driver said he could not see things turning out well.”I don’t know what will happen in the future, but it’s not a good future for us Iranians,” he said.burs-sms/ksb

On a US late-night television show Saturday, the host played a clip from 2011 of a businessman warning that president Barack Obama “will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate.”That businessman was Donald Trump. Fast-forward 15 years and Trump, now in his own second term as president, ordered huge military strikes on Iran when talks with Tehran brought no breakthrough.The commander-in-chief has repeatedly declared himself to be a “President of Peace,” boasted of his dealmaking ability in ending global conflicts, and complained of being cheated of the Nobel Peace Prize.His rise to power in 2016 on an “America First” platform was partly fueled by his rejection of bloody foreign wars waged by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.Back on the campaign trail in 2024, he repeatedly said he had started “no new wars.” After returning to the White House he slammed the “so-called nation-builders” who “wrecked far more nations than they built.”In line with his vision of himself, Trump earlier this year held the first meeting of his “Board of Peace” — a body originally created to uphold the Gaza ceasefire that has morphed into a would-be United Nations featuring several authoritarians.When the Nobel academy snubbed him, Trump even proudly accepted a peace award from football’s world governing body FIFA that appeared to have been specially created for him.- ‘Major surprise’ -But in the second year of his second term, Trump suddenly appears as comfortable prosecuting war as making peace.In the space of less than two months, the man who once shunned “regime change” has reveled in the military operations that toppled Venezuela’s president and killed the supreme leader of Iran.That’s not to mention threatening a military takeover of Greenland from NATO ally Denmark.”All this comes as a major surprise,” said Richard Haass, a former diplomat in president George W. Bush’s administration.”This is an administration that has shown no interest in regime change or democracy promotion elsewhere,” Haass said in a newsletter. “Why here and now is a mystery as there is no clear evidence that the Iranian regime (however unpopular and weakened) is on the edge of collapse.”The scion of a property empire, Trump himself avoided the draft for the Vietnam war. But the former military academy student has long shown a fascination for martial trappings, often surrounding himself with soldiers and visiting military sites.He frequently brags about US military might, including in last year’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and boasted of restoring America’s fighting force to its former glories with new battleships that critics say would be sitting ducks for missiles.- ‘I got power’ -The question now is what effect Trump’s wars will have on US voters, especially the Trump supporters who believed his campaign promises to end its “forever wars.”The first major test will be the American public’s willingness to tolerate military casualties, with the announcement Sunday of the first three service members to die in action against Iran. After the strikes, only one in four Americans approved of the attacks while 43 percent disapproved, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Sunday.Trump’s wars could figure heavily in the November’s midterm elections, in which Republicans already fear they could lose control of the House of Representatives.Trump is deep under water in the polls thanks largely to voters still feeling the pinch from the cost of living — an issue the Iran strikes could exacerbate if oil prices spike.The effect on his base will be a particular concern. Former “Make America Great Again” firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, who split from Trump last year, called the Iran attack a “lie.”But Trump makes no bones about how he enjoys commanding the world’s most powerful military.Welcoming the Florida Panthers ice hockey team to the White House in January, Trump joked that he hated the assembled players because of their good looks and “all this power.””But I got power too, it’s called the United States military,” he said.

Cheers and mourning in Iran. Euphoric celebrations against the Iranian regime and angry protests against the war. Uncertainty about what comes next.The world greeted with jubilation, anger or trepidation the news Sunday that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in the US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic one day earlier.- Music in Tehran -Iranians took to the streets cheering with joy, setting off fireworks and playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death, according to witnesses and video footage verified by AFP. The celebrations in Tehran began shortly after 11:00 pm (1930 GMT), according to multiple witnesses and audio recordings.People were not, however, coming out en masse to celebrate, according to social media.Many Iranians were fearful after the deadly crackdown on mass anti-government protests in January. – Mourning in Tehran -The thousands who did gather in the centre of Iran’s capital were instead mourning Khamenei’s death, according to AFP journalists.The mourners, dressed mostly in black and some crying, chanted “death to America” and “death to Israel” in Enghelab (Revolution) Square, with many waving Iran’s flags and holding photos of Khamenei.Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday branded Khamenei’s killing a “declaration of war against Muslims” by Israel and the United States. Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards vowed earlier on Sunday to punish Khamenei’s “murderers”.- Deadly protests -At least 17 people were killed across Pakistan as hundreds of pro-Iranian protesters tried to storm US diplomatic buildings Sunday.Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has close ties to both the United States and Iran, called Khamenei’s killing a “violation” of international law.”It is an age old convention that the Heads of States/Government should not be targeted,” he wrote on X, sending his “most sincere condolence on the martyrdom” of Khamenei.Hundreds of Iraqis also attempted Sunday to storm Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, where the US embassy is located, an AFP journalist reported.Protests also took place in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir.In Istanbul, protesters carried portraits of Khamenei as they marched against the war, with some burning posters of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was “saddened” by the ayatollah’s death, and extended his sympathies to the Iranian people.In Seoul, South Korea, protesters held “Hands off Iran” signs in front of the US embassy.Similar protests took place in Hyderabad in India and in Athens, Greece.- ‘Free Iran’ -Jubilant Iranians took to the streets in Europe and the United States to cheer Khamenei’s death.In Los Angeles, home to a massive Iranian diaspora, singing and ululating marchers carried flags of shah-era Iran and posters bearing Trump’s image, with some wearing “Free Iran” shirts.There were marches in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and in Paris, with participants waving pre-Islamic revolution Iranian flags and some holding placards with photos of the late shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi.In the French capital, one woman who was born in Iran and moved to France in 1980, called Khamenei’s death “the beginning of the end”.”I have high hopes for the Crown Prince (Pahlavi) because I think he is the most suited to lead the transition,” said Suiz Ziai.”Obviously, it is up to the Iranians to decide but for now, everything is starting off very well.”- ‘Serious violation ‘ -China said Sunday the killing was “a serious violation of Iran’s sovereignty and security, a trampling on the aims and principles of the UN Charter and the basic norms of international relations”.”China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this,” Beijing’s foreign ministry statement added in a statement, calling for “immediate halting of military operations”. – ‘Cynical violation’ -Russian President Vladimir Putin, a key ally of Tehran, on Sunday slammed Khamenei’s killing as a “a cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law”.In a letter to Pezeshkian published by the Kremlin, Putin also expressed his “deepest condolences for the assassination”.- ‘Most evil’ -“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” US President Donald Trump said, announcing the killing on his Truth Social network late Saturday.The killing “is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country,” Trump said.- ‘Cruel tyrant’ -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also called for Iranians to “overthrow the regime” after Khamenei’s killing.”For more than three and a half decades, this cruel tyrant has spread terror across the world while oppressing his own people, while working tirelessly and without pause on a plan to destroy Israel,” he said in a televised statement.- ‘Irreparable chasm’ -Pope Leo XIV on Sunday called for an end to the “spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable chasm,” speaking to a crowd in St Peter’s Square.- ‘Hope’ -A nephew of Khamenei, a France-based doctor opposed to the Islamic republic, welcomed his uncle’s death.”Like most Iranians, I am happy,” Mahmoud Moradkhani, the son of one of Khamenei’s sisters, said by telephone from his home in northern France.”I think it’s a step forward, a hope,” he said, predicting that the government was unlikely to survive.The exiled son of Iran’s last shah called for Iranians to stage nightly protests to help overthrow the government.Reza Pahlavi, 65, also urged the “remaining officials of this republic of terror” to hand over power without bloodshed, in a post on X.- ‘Defining moment’ -EU chief Ursula von der Leyen called for a “credible transition” while the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the killing was a “defining moment”.”What comes next is uncertain. But there is now an open path to a different Iran, one that its people may have greater freedom to shape,” Kallas wrote on X.Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germany shared Iranians’ “relief” to see the “mullah regime come to an end” but cautioned that Khamenei’s death had set the country on a path to an “uncertain future”.- ‘Bloodthirsty dictator’ -UK Defence Secretary John Healey said Sunday that “few people will mourn” Khamenei, echoing Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.French government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon likewise said that France “could only be satisfied with his demise”, calling him a “bloodthirsty dictator”.- ‘Head of the snake’ -Israelis celebrated the death of Khamenei, a sworn enemy of Israel who called the nation “a malign tumour that must be eradicated”.”When you cut off the head of the snake, the snake can no longer rise again,” Moti Arad, a lawyer in Tel Aviv, told AFP.The word “hussal,” meaning “eliminated” in Hebrew, featured on almost major media, the killing marking a rare point of consensus in Israel’s polarised political landscape.- ‘Heinous’ attack -Iran’s ally Hamas on Sunday mourned Khamenei. “The US and the fascist occupation government bear full responsibility for this blatant aggression and heinous crime,” the Palestinian Islamist group said. Fellow Iran proxy Hezbollah likewise vowed to “undertake our duty of confronting the aggression” of Israel and the US.burs-phz/jj

The Pentagon announced the first American casualties in the US-Israeli campaign that killed the supreme leader of Iran, where powerful explosions shook the capital for a second day on Sunday.The fresh blasts on Sunday evening in Tehran came after a day of dramatic Iranian missile and drone attacks on countries across the Middle East, with explosions reported in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Israel.Iran has remained publicly defiant in the face of the US and Israeli bombardment, but US President Donald Trump told The Atlantic magazine that its leaders “want to talk”, and that he had agreed.The Pentagon reported that “three US service members have been killed in action and five are seriously wounded”, adding several others had sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions. “Major combat operations continue and our response effort is ongoing,” it said.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, meanwhile, announced a “large-scale” attack on Sunday as it launched missiles and drones at installations around the Gulf.An attack on the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh killed at least nine people, with others still missing, authorities said.Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian declared Khamenei’s killing a “declaration of war against Muslims” and warned: “Iran considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators and masterminds of this historic crime.”Israel described Khamenei’s death as a “first step”, and military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani boasted that the joint operation “eliminated 40 senior commanders, including Khamenei, in one minute”.  In a social media post that adopted Trump’s style and rhetoric, Ali Larijani, the powerful head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, declared: “Today we will hit them with a force that they have never experienced before.”Trump had levelled a similar threat against Iran earlier on Sunday, but in an interview with The Atlantic, he said: “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them.” Asked when such talks might take place, Trump added, “I can’t tell you.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, said Israeli attacks on Iran “will only escalate in the days ahead”.The Israeli military announced it was mobilising around 100,000 reservists and “raising its level of readiness on the various fronts” as part of the campaign. – Unprecedented force threat -Iranian state TV reported on Sunday evening that a “technical team is assessing the damage” at its headquarters after they were targeted in a strike, though it was not knocked off the air.The broadcaster was previously attacked during the 12-day war with Israel in June, which the US briefly joined.Iranian media also reported that an attack on the headquarters of a border regiment in the western city of Mehran, near Iraq, killed 43 members of the security forces.”According to initial reports, this hostile act was carried out by agents of the United States and the Zionist regime,” the Mehr news agency said.Earlier, cheers had been heard as some Iranians celebrated reports of the death of their longtime leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but after state media confirmed his killing, pro-government demonstrations also formed, chanting “Death to America!”Iran’s first retaliatory strikes on Saturday hit all the Gulf states apart from Oman, which had sought to mediate US-Iran talks. But on Sunday the country’s commercial port of Duqm was hit by two drones, injuring a foreign worker, the Oman News Agency said.Three ships were also attacked in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, maritime security agencies said, after Iran had previously declared the strategic waterway was closed.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had struck the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which Washington deployed to the region ahead of the campaign, but the Pentagon insisted it was not hit, saying the “missiles launched didn’t even come close”.Trump, meanwhile, said that US military strikes had sunk nine Iranian naval vessels and partially destroyed its navy headquarters.Britain urged UK citizens in the Gulf region to “shelter in place”, while the US mission in Jordan urged citizens to stay away from the embassy, and in Bahrain told them to avoid hotels after one was damaged in a strike.  In Iran, the Red Crescent said on Saturday evening that strikes had left 201 people dead and injured hundreds more.Internet monitor Netblocks said connectivity had been down for 24 hours in the country.Iran’s judiciary confirmed that Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Khamenei, and General Mohammad Pakpour, the head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, were among those killed.Iran’s retaliatory strikes in the Gulf have killed at least four people and wounded dozens of others.The UAE, where three people were killed, said it was withdrawing its ambassador from Iran and closing its embassy over the attacks.- Question on succession -Iran had already seen intense speculation on a successor to Khamenei, given his age of 86. Upon his death, many observers expected greater power for the Revolutionary Guards, which are deeply entrenched in the Iranian economy.On Sunday, Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi to join Pezeshkian on an interim leadership council to lead the country while a permanent successor is found for the supreme leader.Iranians met the death of Khamenei with a mix of shock, grief and joy.One Tehran resident in her 30s said people had “shouted for joy”, even in the midst of a war.She said Khamenei’s hands were stained with blood, and recalled that Iranian security forces crushed mass protests in January. “We all realised that there is no way, absolutely no way, to reform this regime except through foreign intervention,” she added.But one truck driver said he could not see things turning out well.”I don’t know what will happen in the future, but it’s not a good future for us Iranians,” he said.burs/smw/dcp

Ilana Malka doesn’t know if her three great-nephews are alive after an Iranian missile struck a shelter in her city of Beit Shemesh, in central Israel, leaving a crater in the ground and a void in the community.The building that housed the shelter was blown to bits by the hit, sending chunks of concrete large enough to destroy cars 50 metres (yards) away.The missile hit the public protection centre while its door was still open to allow people in, Malka and other residents said, killing at least 9, injuring 46, and leaving 11 missing, according to the police.”I heard about my three children, my brother’s grandchildren, that they were there, and they didn’t find them yet”, 65-year-old Malka said, visibly shaken.Her own house, about 100 metres from the shelter, lost most of its windows and bits of ceiling, while her garden was littered with oranges blown off a tree by the blast.But she considers herself lucky, she said, as she would usually head to the public shelter when air raid sirens ring.Tired from the previous day of war, she decided to head down to her own basement shelter, known as a mamal in Hebrew, which is not up to official standard norms and whose door was blown off by the blast around midday on Sunday.”God helped me. Maybe he loves us. For sure, he loves us”, she told AFP.- ‘Everyone knows everyone’ -Like Malka, most residents of the neighbourhood knew someone inside the public shelter.”Beit Shemesh is a small town, so everyone knows everyone”, Moshe Levy, a 52-year-old contractor, told AFP.His sister moved their 88-year-old mother from the apartment he finished renovating last week just two hours before the strike.Though not so close to the impact site, it sustained considerable damage including windows blasted out of their frames and holes in the roof.”Here its just material damage, money can fix it all. There, money can’t fix life”, he said, sparing a thought for the members of his community who lost relatives.The roof of his mother’s building — like many others in the neighbourhood — bore clues to the blast’s centre: clay tiles broken or lifted on the side facing the shelter.Closer to the site where the bombed building once stood, the streets were progressively more and more covered with debris of all sorts from the disintegrated shelter, chunks of clay tiles, wood from furniture, bits of cement and glass from windows.Israel’s sophisticated air defence systems have shot down many missiles fired from Iran, but Saturday’s strike served as a stark reminder that interceptors do not provide guaranteed protection.The war, which started on Saturday, intensified on Sunday as Tehran retaliated for the killing of its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with missile barrages against Israel, Gulf countries and US military assets across the region.Ricki Ben David, a 56-year-old nurse, first feared for her grandchildren, who live below her.”I wasn’t panicked about myself. I wasn’t afraid for myself as much as I was worried about my family members”, she said.”I know these people”, she said of the strike victims, “people we know, neighbours, like family. It’s simply a terrible day”, Ben David said.”We live together, we pray together in the synagogue, we see each other on holidays, we help one another”, she added.At the impact site, a fresh evergreen scent wafted through the air from cypress trees whose branches were blown off in the strike.As night began to fall, search and rescue teams lit large floodlights to continue their search for the missing, while police and military officers dispersed the hundreds of onlookers for fear of another strike.

At least 17 people were killed Sunday across Pakistan as protesters outraged over the death of Iran’s supreme leader took to the streets, with some attempting to storm US diplomatic buildings.In the Pakistani megacity of Karachi, an AFP journalist witnessed hundreds of pro-Iranian protesters trying to enter the US consulate, prompting clashes with police.At least 10 people had died and over 70 were injured as of Sunday evening, the office of the Karachi police surgeon said.Earlier, a hospital toll seen by AFP listed nine people as having died from gunshot wounds.In the northern city of Gilgit, at least seven people were killed and many more injured in clashes with police, rescue official Zaheer Shah told AFP by phone.Thousands gathered in the streets of the capital Islamabad, many holding photos of late Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, with AFP witnessing police deploy tear gas to disperse crowds near the US embassy.Israel and the United States launched their mass aerial campaign on Iran early Saturday, quickly killing the long-ruling supreme leader and prompting outrage in neighouring Pakistan.Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has close ties with both the United States and Iran, said on Sunday evening that the killing of Khamenei was a “violation” of international law.”It is an age old convention that the Heads of State/Government should not be targeted,” Sharif wrote on X.The “people of Pakistan join the people of Iran in their hour of grief and sorrow and extend the most sincere condolences on the martyrdom” of Khamenei, he added.At Sunday’s Karachi protest, people chanted slogans against the United States, Israel and their allies.”We don’t need anything in Pakistan that is linked with the US,” a protester, Sabir Hussain, told AFP.Earlier a crowd of young people climbed over the main gate and gained access to the driveway of the consular building, smashing some windows.Police fired tear gas at the protesters, who dispersed, the AFP journalist saw.The embassies of the United States and Britain both urged citizens in Pakistan to be cautious in the country.- American ‘stooges’ -Around 4,000 people took to the streets in the capital Islamabad, where AFP journalists heard overhead gunfire, believed to be to disperse the crowd, and saw tear gas even before the planned start of a rally at 3:00 pm.Zahra Mumtaz, a 52-year-old housewife from nearby Rawalpindi, said: “Our leader has been martyred, and we are not even allowed to protest.””The least the government could do is let us express our grief,” she told AFP, crying.”Our leaders are nothing but stooges of the Americans… The Americans and Israelis will have to pay for this.”In the northern city of Skardu, protesters stormed and set fire to a United Nations office, causing black smoke to rise from the building, an AFP reporter saw.At least three nearby vehicles were completely burned.Thousands of people also took to the streets in the eastern city of Lahore.Since the launch of the US-Israeli operations, Prime Minister Sharif has announced several calls with other regional leaders — whose countries have been targeted by Iranian retaliatory attacks — and urged restraint.His statements have notably called the attacks on Iran an Israeli operation — excluding mention of the major US involvement.

The killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the ongoing US-Israeli bombing campaign have ushered in a period of uncertainty for the country’s leadership.At the beginning of the air campaign, US President Donald Trump urged Iranians to seize power once it was over, having voiced support for mass protests against the clerical leadership that peaked in January before a deadly crackdown.- Continuity for now – Today “the country appears ‘tightly controlled’,” said Pierre Razoux, director of the Mediterranean Foundation for Strategic Studies (FMES), after the authorities in recent days closed universities, deployed security forces in cities and cut the internet. “Everything is being done to prevent protests. As long as the public is not convinced that the repressive apparatus — 600,000 Basij (volunteer paramilitary) and 250,000 internal security forces — has been neutralised, they are unlikely to take to the streets again.”Iran’s political system has procedures for the succession of the supreme leader, and his “removal does not mean the end” for a system with many centres of power and redundancies in place, Razoux told AFP. He expected a scenario of “continuity of the regime with new rules of the game — perhaps to the detriment of the clerics, but with the same people in charge”. Researcher Theo Nencini of Sciences Po Grenoble said: “The entire direction of the regime will depend on the choice of the new supreme leader.”In Venezuela in January, after US forces snatched president Nicolas Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez took charge with Trump’s endorsement and the regime survived in return for concessions to Washington.French-Iranian sociologist Azadeh Kian speculated to broadcaster Franceinfo that Trump might be “looking to come to an understanding with a more moderate wing of the regime”.Khamenei’s killing “could give rise to significant rivalries within the circles of power between the Revolutionary Guards and the civilian leadership,” she said, “But for now, they are all working together to keep the system in place”.- The Guards’ moment? – “The alternative is a takeover by the Pasdaran,” the country’s ideological army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Razoux said.While its commander Mohammad Pakpour was killed in Saturday’s strikes, the IRGC remains an extremely well-organised force, with considerable influence in Iranian society, politics and the economy. “In reality, the rebalancing of power in favour of the Revolutionary Guards has already happened” in recent years, Nencini said. “But a transition towards a more militarised regime under their leadership is a possibility — a more conventional military regime, without the current Shiite religious framework. Still, I find it hard to imagine them doing away with the religious veneer altogether,” he added.- The regular army – With a force of 350,000 men, according to the specialist publication Military Balance 2026, Iran’s army “does not carry political weight today, but it could still play a role in the future if the military decides to take a political direction different from that of the Guards”, Nencini said. Razoux said the Iranian army “may hold one of the keys, and its positioning will be crucial — in relation to the population, the leadership and the Guards alike”. “There is no indication of its intentions. At the moment it is stretched thin, busy defending the country and trying to limit the damage,” he added.Moreover, in the event of a political shift, the armed forces will “need to demonstrate that they have fulfilled their role and carried out their mission”. The army could also rally behind another figure, but according to Nencini, there is “no credible political figure offering an alternative among the opposition”.- Fractured opposition – The opposition inside Iran is repressed and imprisoned, illustrated by the case of jailed 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi.Opposition movements in exile have long been divided.The deposed shah’s eldest son, Reza Pahlavi, “is being promoted by Western media” and appears to be gaining in popularity, Nencini said, but his credibility in the eyes of people inside Iran remains unclear.”There is a spectrum of opponents in Iran who could take action in the future,” Kian said, also pointing to the emergence of demands from ethnic minorities such as the Kurds and Baluchis.But for these groups to carry real weight, they would need to form “a coalition”, she said, stressing that these minorities wouldn’t accept submission to Pahlavi, who “lacks the structures and institutions necessary to come to power”. 

The US military on Sunday said three service members have been killed and five seriously wounded in the war against Iran — the first casualties announced on the US side.The news, which could have serious political ramifications in Washington, came as President Donald Trump emphasized successes in the operation, announcing that nine Iranian naval ships had been sunk and not referring to the US deaths.The United States and Israel launched massive bombardments against Iran and killed its supreme leader Saturday, with attacks ongoing Sunday.There was no indication from officials about how or exactly where the American casualties occurred.”Three U.S. service members have been killed in action and five are seriously wounded as part of Operation Epic Fury. Several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions — and are in the process of being returned to duty,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.”Major combat operations continue and our response effort is ongoing. The situation is fluid, so out of respect for the families, we will withhold additional information, including the identities of our fallen warriors, until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified.”Trump, spending the weekend at his Florida resort, gave multiple interviews to US media outlets about other aspects of the Iran operation that were published shortly before the casualties were made public.He told Fox News that 48 Iranian leaders had been killed “in one shot” and told The Atlantic that he was ready to open negotiations but “can’t tell” when.”Things are evolving in a very positive way right now, a very positive way,” he said in another interview with CNBC.Well after the news broke about the US losses, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Iran’s navy was being targeted — but again avoided mentioning the casualties.”We have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, some of them relatively large and important,” Trump posted. The country’s naval headquarters, he said, was “largely destroyed.”- ‘Reckless’ war accusation -The only senior Trump administration official to react initially to the news of US casualties was the ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, who posted simply: “Freedom is never free.”Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Trump’s Republican Party, posted that he was “heartbroken” over the fatalities.”No more American heroes need to die because of a reckless decision to go to war. Congress must act this week to restrain this president,” Jeffries said.US air and naval forces — together with Israel’s military — are heavily bombarding Iran, and Trump has said the goal is to destroy the country’s military capacity.In response, Iran has fired missiles at targets in Israel and at US military facilities around the region.Earlier Sunday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had successfully struck the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf with four ballistic missiles.However, CENTCOM said the vessel “was not hit.””The missiles launched didn’t even come close. The Lincoln continues to launch aircraft in support of CENTCOM’s relentless campaign to defend the American people by eliminating threats from the Iranian regime,” a statement said.CENTCOM said US forces had sunk an Iranian Jamaran-class corvette warship at a dock in the Gulf of Oman.The military also announced that B-2 stealth bombers carrying 2,000-pound bombs had been used against “Iran’s hardened ballistic missile facilities.”