Mojtaba Khamenei has been announced as his father's successor as supreme leader. But US officials claim that he is wounded, and analysts say he has never held an executive role. That has left observers wondering what the chain of command looks like in Tehran, and who the most powerful figures in the country are.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, upon coming to power in Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution, adopted a distinctly Shia-sectarian constitution. With its approval, all Iranian citizens who did not belong to the Shia sect became, in practice, second-class citizens. At the same time, he embraced the export of the revolution beyond Iran through his tilling the land programme.
A missile struck a helipad inside the US Embassy in Baghdad, two security officials told the Associated Press news agency. The projectile landed within the embassy's boundaries after the Green Zone, the heavily fortified district in central Baghdad that houses Iraqi government institutions and foreign embassies, added the security officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they are not authorised to speak with the press.
Bases in Erbil where UK and allied troops are stationed and Baghdad were struck a number of times on Wednesday night, according to Brigadier Guy Foden, in what is the third attack on British forces since the conflict began.
Last night, they shot down two UAVs approaching the camp. However, several UAVs did impact the camp. We are seeing increasing coordination in those attacks. A number of other UAVs did impact the camp, but there were no British casualties. Their operations have therefore been fairly continuous since the situation began.
Iran and the regime he's led for so long, it's a source of evil—murdering its own citizens and sponsoring and exporting terror. I think few people will mourn the ayatollah's death, not least the families and friends of the thousands of protesters murdered on the streets of Iranian cities.
Russia's massive drone attack overnight on six Ukrainian regions, which hit energy and gas transport infrastructure and cut off power to over 100,000 people, is the latest sign that Moscow is nowhere near peace. Coupled with the Kremlin's rejection of meaningful security guarantees for Ukraine, it's clear that President Vladimir Putin is still pursuing his maximalist war goals. That doesn't surprise General (Ret.) Philip Breedlove, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, who said the U.S. has been "completely deterred" by Putin for the last 11 years, across four presidents, which has built a "sanctuary" for Russia and allowed it to escalate in Ukraine unchecked.
