Akhtar Makoii – The Telegraph . com
The first missile struck the compound of Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, at 9.55am Tehran time.
As many as twenty-nine more followed shortly after.
Within minutes, the presidential palace in Pasteur Square was hit. Then the parliament building in Baharestan Square. The Ministry of Intelligence headquarters on Nejatollahi Street.
The defence ministry compound just off the Qasem Soleimani Expressway. The national security council headquarters on Valiasr Street. And Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command centres across the capital.
There could be no doubt about Donald Trump’s mission. This was about taking down the Iranian regime.
Mohammed Pakpour, the IRGC chief, was killed, as was Amir Nasirzadeh, Iran’s defence minister.
Khamenei’s daughter-in-law and son-in-law were also killed.
And then late on Saturday night, Donald Trump announced that Khameni himself was dead. Israel said his body had been pulled from the rubble.
“He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do,” the president posted on his Truth Social channel.
More than 200 US and Israeli jets surged into Iranian air space as strikes were launched across the country and continued on Saturday night.
IRGC naval bases along the Persian Gulf coast were struck, as were missile production facilities in Qom, Karaj, Kermanshah and Bushehr.
Explosions were heard at Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal, as well as in Tabriz, Dezful, Nahavand and Kangavar in Kermanshah province.
The US launched strikes on Iran because intelligence indicated Tehran intended to use conventional missiles pre-emptively against US troops and was rebuilding nuclear facilities destroyed in last year’s war rather than negotiating seriously, US officials said.
“We had indicators that they intended to use it potentially, pre-emptively, but if not, if not simultaneous, against with any actions against them, immediately against us,” a senior Trump administration official added.
Tehran was negotiating from a position of weakness following January’s mass protests but still would not make necessary concessions.