A sense of shock settled over Tehran on Sunday as Iranians awoke to the news that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, had been killed during a sweeping wave of American and Israeli airstrikes. For many, the development felt almost unimaginable; a rupture in a political order that had defined the nation for decades. In the early hours of the morning, crowds gathered in parts of Tehran and other cities to celebrate. Fireworks lit the sky as people danced and

The United States and Israel launched a major assault on Iran on Saturday, striking targets in at least nine cities and raising fears of a wider regional war. President Trump said the campaign aimed to destroy Iran’s nuclear program and cripple its military, and he framed it as pressure Iran could have avoided by accepting U.S. terms in earlier talks. In Tehran, powerful blasts began in the morning, and witnesses described panic and confusion as residents tried to find safet