Where things stand
• Iran’s supreme leader killed: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been killed, Iranian state media has confirmed, after a massive US-Israeli attack on the country that US President Donald Trump said would continue with heavy bombing throughout the week.
• About the strikes: Trump indicated the military operation is aimed at overturning Tehran’s government. One strike killed scores of students in an elementary school in southern Iran, according to state media.
• Unprecedented retaliation: Iran unleashed strikes on US military bases, Israel and other targets across the Middle East, rocking densely populated areas and disrupting air travel and oil shipments. The US military has reported no combat-related American casualties.
• A region on edge: The United Arab Emirates called the attacks a “historic moment” in the Middle East, saying world leaders had failed to ensure the region’s stability.
Who could lead Iran after death of the supreme leader?
Multiple Iranian state media outlets have confirmed the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after the US and Israel said he was killed in joint strikes on the nation.
Who could replace him remains unclear — the veteran leader does not have an officially declared heir.
An elected body of 88 senior clerics, known as the Assembly of Experts, will select the next leader.
CNN takes a look at some of the contenders for the position, according to experts and analysts.
- Mojtaba Khamenei, 56: The second son of Khamenei, Mojtaba is known to wield significant influence and has strong links with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as well as its Basij volunteer paramilitary force. But father-to-son succession is frowned upon in the Shiite Muslim clerical establishment. An additional hurdle is that Mojtaba is not a high-ranking cleric and has no official role in the regime.
- Alireza Arafi, 67: A lesser-known figure, Arafi is an established cleric and confidant of Khamenei. He currently serves as deputy chairman of the Assembly of Experts and has been a member of the powerful Guardian Council, which vets election candidates and laws passed by parliament. He is also head of Iran’s seminary system. Arafi isn’t known to be a political heavyweight and doesn’t have close ties to the security establishment.
- Mohammad Mehdi Mirbagheri, early 60s: A hardline cleric and a member of the Assembly of Experts who represents the most conservative wing of the clerical establishment. According to IranWire, an activist outlet, he is strongly opposed to the West and believes a conflict between believers and infidels is inevitable. He currently heads the Islamic Sciences Academy in the northern holy city of Qom.
- Hassan Khomeini, early 50s: The grandson of the Islamic Republic founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, giving him religious and revolutionary legitimacy. He serves as the custodian of the Khomeini mausoleum but hasn’t held public office and appears to have little influence with the country’s security apparatus or ruling elite. He is known to be less hardline than many of his peers.
- Hashem Hosseini Bushehri, late 60s: A senior cleric closely linked to the institutions that manage succession, particularly the Assembly of Experts, where he serves as first deputy chairman. Bushehri said to have been close to Khamenei but has a low profile domestically and isn’t known to have strong ties to the IRGC.
Iranian state media confirm death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Multiple Iranian state media are confirming the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“The Supreme Leader of Iran Has Reached Martyrdom,” state broadcaster IRIB reported Sunday morning.
“This great scholar and mujahid (fighter) sacrificed his life to lift Iran… and he is in the grand presence of martyrs above,” said the state affliated Mehr news outlet.
Iran announced 40 days of national mourning following the Supreme Leader’s death.
The announcement comes after the US and Israel said Khamenei was killed following a barrage of joint US-Israeli strikes on the nation.
Trump says he knows who he wants to lead Iran
President Donald Trump said Saturday there are “some good candidates” to lead Iran after he announced the killing of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Asked by CBS News in a phone interview who he thought was in charge, Trump said, “I know exactly who, but I can’t tell you.”
When pressed on whether there is someone in Iran he would prefer to see assume leadership, the president said, “Yes, I think so. There are some good candidates.”
Trump did not elaborate further on whom he was referencing.
Waltz cites broad Iranian aggression over decades to justify strikes
US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz sought to justify US and Israeli strikes against Iran during a UN Security Council meeting Saturday by citing a broad catalog of Iranian aggression towards the US and its allies over the course of many years, but he didn’t point to any imminent threat posed by the country.
“The regime in Tehran has led attacks that have cost American lives, hundreds of US Marines in Lebanon, thousands of troops in Iraq; American hostage after hostage has suffered; our ships fired upon dozens of times in the Red Sea. Iran has armed and financed militant organizations that undermine lawful governments and destabilize an already fragile region,” Waltz said.
Waltz – echoing President Donald Trump’s remarks early on Saturday morning – said that the Iranian regime has for decades “willfully destabilized the world.”
Waltz pointed to the threats that the Iranian regime has posed to US regional allies and international shipping including with its support for proxy groups that the US has declared terrorist organizations.
After the Iranian representative spoke and argued that the strikes were inconsistent with international law, Waltz took the floor again to swipe back.
“I’ll just say on a final note, you know who is not complaining tonight? You know who is not citing the vagaries of international law? You know who is celebrating in the streets around the world? The Iranian people,” Waltz said.
Video shows fire engulfing residential high-rise in Bahrain
Videos geolocated and verified by CNN show a large fire at a residential high-rise building in Manama, Bahrain, on Saturday.
It’s unclear what caused the fire at the Breaker apartment tower, but videos show a blaze engulfing exterior cladding across nearly all of the 30-story building.
Earlier in Manama, footage verified by CNN showed an Iranian Shahed drone striking the upper floors of another building, the Era View residential tower. Nearby, another drone strike destroyed a radar dome at a US naval base.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said Saturday night that a residential building in Manama was “targeted” and that authorities are investigating. Earlier, the ministry announced that three buildings in Manama and Muharraq sustained damage “as a result of drone attacks and falling debris from an intercepted missile.”
“The first building has been evacuated, and the fire has been brought under control, with one minor case of smoke inhalation treated on site,” the ministry said in a post on X, without specifying which buildings or where.
“Firefighting and security operations are underway at the second site, while an assessment of the material damage to the third building caused by falling debris from an intercepted missile is underway,” it said.
CNN has reached out to the ministry to confirm whether the Breaker is among the buildings noted in its post.
Israeli military launches another wave of strikes as explosions reported in Tehran
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday said it has begun another wave of strikes against Iran.
In a statement, the IDF said the new attack was targeting Iran’s “ballistic missile array and the aerial defense systems.”
Soon after, Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim, reported that explosions were heard in Tehran.
FBI's high alert means "all hands on deck" for surveillance
The FBI’s counterterrorism and counterintelligence teams are on high alert after the US-Israel strikes in Iran. What does that really mean?
CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst explains here:
US defense secretary says Iran is "suffering the consequences" of refusing to reach a deal
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth touted US strikes on Iran in a social media post this evening, describing the attacks as “the consequences” of Iran refusing to make a deal with the US.
Hegseth — who is currently with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, according to a US official — went on to say that Iran’s missile production and its navy “will be destroyed.
“And, as President Trump has said his entire life, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth added.
CNN’s Haley Britzky contributed to this post.
At least 133 civilians killed in US-Israel strikes on Iran, rights group reports
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said at least 133 civilians have been killed in Iran and 200 injured in the joint US-Israeli strikes on the country.
In addition, HRANA said at least eight military personnel have been killed and two injured.
The group said the toll was “a minimum and conservative figure.”
“The actual number of civilian casualties is likely higher than this figure,” HRANA said in a statement.
Earlier, Iranian state media Press TV reported that 201 people had been killed and another 747 injured across 24 provinces, citing the Iranian Red Crescent.
US claims of preemptive defense "cannot legitimize" aggression, Iran tells UN Security Council
Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani, on Saturday decried the joint US-Israeli strikes on the country as a “war crime” anathema to the UN founding charter.
The comments were made at an emergency meeting called by the United Nations Security Council. Notable amongst speakers were representatives from the US, Iran, and Israel, in that order.
“The baseless allegations involved to defend this unlawful use of force have no standing under international law,” Iravani said during his remarks, adding: “The invocation of preemptive attack, claims of imminent threats, or other unsubstantiated political claims, cannot legitimize aggression.”
Shortly after the initial launch of the attacks on Iran, US President Donald Trump posted a pre-recorded address to the nation in which he rationalized the operation as one “to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.”
Iravani concluded his comments by asserting that Iran will “continue to exercise its inherent right of self defense,” but notably left out of his speech any mentions of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported to be dead by Trump and Israeli officials – something Iranian officials adamantly denied.
1 killed, at least 121 injured in strikes across Israel
Israel’s national emergency service says that one person was killed and 121 others injured in strikes across the country on Saturday.
Most of the injured are in “mild condition,” Magen David Adom (MDA) said in a statement issued early Sunday local time.
EMTs and paramedics “provided medical treatment and evacuated a total of 121 casualties to hospitals nationwide, including: a woman in her fifties who was killed, 2 patients in moderate condition, and 119 in mild condition,” MDA said.
An Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv accounted for the death and roughly a quarter of those injured, including several children. Video and photographs from the scene show the wall of a building shorn off, its concrete and rebar structure exposed.
What the supreme leader's reported death means for Iran and the region
US President Donald Trump placed a huge wager by launching a massive air assault on Iran despite having done little to prepare Americans for a new Middle East war with immense risks and years of future consequences.
But the reported death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opens up a possible scenario in which Tehran’s brutal Islamist regime is overthrown, ending decades of repression that recently saw thousands of civilians gunned down in the streets.
Khamenei’s demise would be a seismic political event in Iranian history. It would threaten the power of hardline Islamists who turned Iran into a ruthless theocratic dictatorship.
It would also add urgency to a critical question raised by Trump’s assault: Would the removal of top leaders unleash institutional reform, or set off uncontrollable political forces that would deepen repression and tear the country apart?
No one needs reminding of the treacherous possibilities of foreign wars that begin with shock-and-awe violence. Many will view Trump’s impulsive attack as a reckless, imperial error. Critics in Congress are slamming what they see as an unconstitutional war.
Iranian counterattacks against US allies underscored the potential for his bet to spiral out of control.
But while the Middle East usually destroys the preconceptions of outsiders, it’s possible history may eventually remember Trump as the savior of Iranians.
Read more analysis from Stephen Collinson here.
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria says Khamenei’s death would be a “watershed” moment for the world:
Lapid takes shelter with his dog while sirens sound in Tel Aviv
Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid was interrupted by sirens in Tel Aviv on Saturday while he was giving an interview to Reuters news agency.
He paused during the interview to say, “There is a siren. We’ll keep on doing this, now we have the necessary dramatics for the interview.” But he is quickly interrupted again by more sirens.
As Lapid and the Reuters crew headed down to the shelter, he paused to make sure his dog was with him. “Hello, Reuters. I’m just making sure that the dog is passed because we were worried about him,” he told the crew as they filmed him heading down the stairs.
Greeting his dog, Johnson, inside the shelter, Lapid said, “He’s the graduate of three wars already, even though he’s the young pup, and we’re in the shelter together. Right, Johnson?”
Meanwhile, White House says Trump plans to attend fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago tonight
Following the joint United States-Israel attack on Iran, President Donald Trump is planning to attend a fundraiser for his super PAC this evening at his Florida home.
The MAGA Inc. fundraising dinner was listed on his public schedule.
The White House called a travel and photo lid at 4:22 p.m. ET on Saturday, and Trump is not expected to make any in-person appearances before reporters.
“President Trump still intends to stop by the fundraiser being held at Mar-a-Lago this evening for the Republican Party, which is more important than ever,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters traveling with the president.
Drone strike on Abu Dhabi airport kills one, injures seven, authorities say
A drone strike at Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi killed one person and injured seven, the airport said in a statement on social media.
“The public is urged to avoid circulating rumors and to rely only on official sources. Updates will be provided.”
Earlier in the evening, as Iran retaliated for US and Israeli strikes on its territory, CNN teams in Abu Dhabi heard loud thudding sounds in the direction of the airport and saw numerous emergency vehicles parked outside the main terminal with flashers on, as well as a large crowd of people gathered on the sidewalk nearby.
Iranian Americans describe hope after the strikes in Iran
As the Middle East remains on edge following the strikes in Iran, in the United States, Americans of Iranian descent are processing the developments across in their own ways.
Dina Navid, 19, of New York, said she feels hopeful after Israeli sources say that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the strikes.
Navid, whose parents fled the current regime and migrated to the US before she was born, told CNN that she believes Iranians “have an opportunity to do a great thing,” describing this moment as a “once in a lifetime” chance to change the ruling structure that has been in place since the 1979 revolution.
Navid has visited Iran in the past and has relatives who still live there, but she said visiting the country again was not something she had considered, noting that the country’s rigidity had turned her away.
But after today’s developments, she said she sees a future where she could visit. “I just would wait a little bit,” she said. “I think with time, everything will ease down.”
Myer Levy, 30, of New York said he is hopeful for change in Iran, as well.
“I’m so happy if the Iranian Ayatollah is killed, is gone,” he told CNN.
Levy, who was born in Israel to Jewish Iranians before his family moved to New York, said he hopes for democratic rule in Iran and thinks there is more of a possibility for that now.
Trump says Iran’s supreme leader was killed. Catch up on the latest from the Middle East
News is moving fast out of the Middle East today as Iran responds to a large-scale military operation by Israel and the United States.
Here are some of the key headlines from our coverage over the past few hours:
- US President Donald Trump said Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the joint US-Israeli attack. Israeli sources have also said Khamenei was killed, though Tehran has denied this and no public proof has surfaced yet. Israel’s military has shared a list of other senior Iranian officials it says were killed.
- Trump also said today’s operation will be “uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective,” indicating that heavy bombing will continue as he advocates for regime change in Iran.
- Meanwhile, more bomb blasts and air raid sirens were heard by CNN teams in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Israel, which have each been a key focus of Iran’s retaliatory strikes against US military bases and other targets throughout the region.
- The US intelligence community previously assessed that in the event of a regime change in Iran, the hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would likely fill any leadership void in the short term. But intelligence has not been definitive on the issue, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers in January that “no one knows” who would take over if the regime falls.
- Iran’s network of proxy groups across the Middle East issued stern condemnations of the US-Israeli strikes on their sponsor. However, the groups have not yet declared their participation in retaliatory strikes. The proxy groups had previously been quick to come to the defense of Iran, but each group has faced varying levels of diminishment in recent years.
- A senior Trump administration official said today that they believed Iran was preparing to potentially launch preemptive missile strikes, a factor that influenced Trump’s decision to initiate military action. Trump also came to the decision after concluding that its leadership was unwilling to abandon its pursuit of nuclear enrichment, a senior administration official said today.
- Cheers and celebrations were heard in parts of Tehran Saturday night following reports of Khamenei’s death.
- Rubio is no longer traveling to Israel on Monday as the State Department had previously announced.
- Trump spoke with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Saturday, according to the White House. The White house has since called a travel and photo lid, signaling that Trump is not expected to make any in-person appearances before reporters.
Dubai airport "damaged" amid Iranian drone barrage of UAE, 4 staff injured
A concourse at Dubai International Airport (DXB) sustained “minor damage” early on Sunday.
“Four staff sustained injuries and received prompt medical attention,” Dubai Airports said in a statement to CNN.
Most of the terminals were already cleared of passengers as an earlier precautionary measure when the airports were closed on Saturday.
Social media videos verified by CNN show the interior of the airport filled with smoke as dozens of airline employees calmly evacuated the building.
Eyewitnesses have also described to CNN scenes of ambulances rushing toward the airport.
The UAE Ministry of Defense said that although it managed to intercept 195 drones that were launched at the country since the start of Iran’s attack on Saturday, 14 fell within the country’s territories “causing some collateral damage.”
Earlier on Saturday, Dubai Airports issued a statement that said “passengers must not travel to the airport and are advised to contact their airline directly for the latest flight updates.”
The airport is one of the busiest in the world and serves as a major aviation hub in the Middle East.
CNN’s Tala Alrajjal contributed reporting
Iranian state media says 108 girls killed in US-Israeli strike on school
The number of students killed in a US-Israeli strike on a girls’ school in the southern Iranian city of Minab has risen to at least 108, Iranian state media IRIB reported, citing the city’s prosector.
The local governor has declared a day of public mourning in the province on Sunday, IRIB added.
Video posted by IRIB shows at least eight body bags on the floor of a building in the aftermath of the strike.
Iranian officials say a US-Israel strike on a girls’ primary school in southern Iran killed and injured more than 150 students.
In another attack in the southern province of Lamerd, at least 18 civilians were killed in US and Israeli strikes that hit a sports complex and residential areas, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported, citing the local governor.
A health official told IRNA most of those killed in Lamerd were children and that around 100 other people have been injured in the attacks.
Iranian American congresswoman calls for "real plan" to support democracy in Iran
Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari, the first Iranian American Democrat elected to Congress, warned that removing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei alone “does not dismantle a brutal regime” and called for a “real plan” to support democracy in Iran.
“Military force alone will not secure a democratic future for the Iranian people, and it risks putting U.S. troops in further danger if there is no serious plan for what comes next,” Ansari said in a post on X Saturday. “An action of this magnitude demands strategy, clarity, and a credible path forward.
At the same time, she said Khamenei’s death is nothing to be mourned, empathizing with those who are celebrating in Iran.
“Khamenei was the epitome of evil. For decades, he oversaw the torture, imprisonment, and murder of countless Iranians who dared to demand freedom. American blood is on his hands as well. No one should mourn him and his death is a relief,” Ansari said.
Beyond military action, her argument is that Iranians need to be supported with a real plan on the path toward democracy.
“I want nothing more than a free Iran and safety and security for innocent Iranians. That requires more than force. It requires seriousness, accountability, and a real plan to support the Iranian people in determining their own future,” she added.
