Reports indicate that the Israeli Air Force conducted an airstrike on Wednesday targeting a significant Iranian gathering. This meeting involved Tehran’s senior clerics, who had convened to choose a successor for the late supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
According to the Times of Israel, the Assembly of Experts, a group consisting of 88 members, was reportedly assembled in Qom when the airstrike occurred overnight, striking their meeting location.
Fox News noted that the airstrike coincided with the clerics’ vote-counting process to appoint the new supreme leader.
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In response to the attack, Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that the targeted building was an old facility no longer in use by the assembly for its meetings.
The exact number of assembly members present in the building during the strike, or whether any were involved in the voting process at the time, remains uncertain.
Viral images from Qom allegedly show the building that housed the Iranian leaders, with the structure left in complete ruins following the blast.
The bombing ultimately left the building “flattened,” but no injuries or deaths have yet been reported as a result of the strike, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Iran’s leadership was plunged into chaos following Khamenei’s death on Saturday, with the country’s constitution tasking the Assembly of Experts to name a new successor.
While there is no strict deadline for a successor to be chosen, the Iranian constitution dictates that the assembly act in the shortest time possible.
The assembly said that choosing a successor for Khamenei “won’t take long,” according to Iran’s ISNA news agency.
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The clerical body, however, could opt to delay naming a successor out of fears that he will be immediately targeted by the US and Israel, officials told Reuters.
The Assembly of Experts, itself, is made up of publicly elected clerics who have been vetted by Iran’s Guardian Council.
Until the assembly can hold an election, Iran will be run by a temporary three-man council composed of President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei and Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, who serves as the Guardian Council’s representative.
Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the parliament speaker who has capped speeches off with chants of “Death to America, are believed to be among the favorites to succeed Khamenei.
The strike came just as the Israeli Air Force deployed around 100 fighter jets to drop more than 250 bombs on a “leadership complex” in Tehran, located north of Qom.
The attack targeted Tehran’s presidential bureau, the headquarters of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and compounds used by Iran’s leadership and military, according to the IDF.
“The leadership complex of the terror regime is one of the most secured assets in Iran and spans many streets in the heart of Tehran,” the IDF said in a statement.
“The leadership and security officials of the terror regime convened in the compound frequently, and from there conducted, among other things, situation assessments regarding the Iranian nuclear program and the advancement of the plan to destroy the State of Israel,” the Israeli military added.
Along with Khamenei, US officials estimate that at least 47 other Iranian leaders were killed during the first 48 hours of the war.
