After Khamenei, missile attacks continue amid defiance of Iranian leaders. Israel-Iran conflict news

Tehran, Iran – Major airstrikes by the United States and Israel on Tehran and other cities continue as the Iranian establishment considers its future while launching projectiles across the region.

The capital was rocked several times Sunday after a series of attacks in several neighbourhoods, with the Israeli military saying military centres were also the targets. Iranian officials have largely avoided discussing missile impacts, and Internet connectivity remained almost completely blocked for a second day.

After Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top commanders were killed in Tehran at the start of the war on Saturday, the Islamic Republic’s remaining top officials are insisting that the democratic establishment has a clear path forward based on its internal mechanisms.

According to laws enacted after the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution, a clerical body called the Assembly of Experts is tasked with selecting the next supreme leader.

Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian said that a new leadership council “has begun its work”

following Khamenei’s death. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Foreign Minister, informed Al Jazeera that the process should conclude in a few days.

A three-member council will rule until that time.

As council members, judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ezei and President Pezeshkian have vowed continuity. In a video address earlier Sunday, Pezeshkian called on pro-regime supporters to gather in mosques and on major city streets despite the war.

The third member was announced on Sunday as Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, a clerical member of the powerful constitutional watchdog known as the Guardian Council. The Expediency Council, an arbitration body, was tasked with selecting jurisprudence experts for the new council.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which was founded after the 1979 revolution and has since become a major military and economic power, is also expected to play a key role.

Mohammad Pakpour, who was appointed commander-in-chief of the IRGC less than a year ago after his predecessor was assassinated during the 12-day war with Israel, was killed on Saturday. Among those killed were Iran’s armed forces chief of staff Abdolrahim Mousavi, Defence Council chief Ali Shamkhani and police intelligence chief Gholam-Reza Rezaian.

The IRGC vowed revenge and launched “the heaviest offensive campaign in the history of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic against the occupied lands”. [a reference to Israel] And bases of American terrorists ”.

Army chief Amir Hatami also promised to continue defending the country, as the military claimed its warplanes bombed US targets across the region without providing footage.

Police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said his forces are ready to fight for “public security” as the US and Israel have openly called on Iranians to protest in the streets with the goal of overthrowing the regime in the near future.

Another key figure in the Islamic republic’s power structure, security chief Ali Larijani, supported a constitutional process to decide the future leadership while reaching out to the country as it grapples with incoming Iranian missiles and drones.

In a post in Arabic on Twitter, he said Tehran does not want to attack its neighbours but considers US bases in those countries “US territory”. He also issued a separate all-caps post in English, saying, “Today we will attack them with a force they have never experienced before.”

The IRGC’s top commander and former security chief Ali Akbar Ahmadian, who served as Khamenei’s appointed representative on the Supreme Defence Council, vowed that the body would continue its work despite the killing of its top members, including Shamkhani. The council was formed to strengthen defence strategies following last June’s war with Israel, when Iran suffered heavy damage from Israeli and US bombing of its nuclear and military sites.

Hassan Khomeini, grandson of founding Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, also praised the 86-year-old Khamenei after his assassination, calling him “a hero of the Iranian people and Muslims around the world.”

Khomeini, a relatively moderate cleric, is among those whom Western media have said are likely to become the next supreme leader. Khomeini has not addressed the issue but stressed on Sunday that protecting “the sacred establishment of the Islamic Republic” is of paramount importance.

Former President Hassan Rouhani, who last week denied being part of a power grab at the height of January’s nationwide protests, said he supports the transitional council, the armed forces and the government in an effort to preserve the establishment.

Former President Mohammad Khatami condemned Khamenei’s assassination, calling it an attempt to harm Iran’s “independence and unity”. He also reiterated his previous call for reforms to frustrate the “enemies” of the religious establishment.

Controversial populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was Iran’s president from 2005 to 2013, was killed along with several bodyguards after being targeted by Israel, some local media reports said. The state-linked Iranian Labour News Agency on Sunday, citing a knowledgeable source, denied that he was dead but did not elaborate.

Several videos from the scene of Saturday’s attacks on 72 Square in the Narmak neighbourhood of eastern Tehran showed the area where Ahmadinejad resided being targeted. A school in the same area was damaged and at least two children were killed, according to local officials, who said separately that another school strike in the city of Minab in southern Iran killed more than 150 people, many of them children.

As US and Israeli officials promise to continue attacking Iran for days or weeks, using hundreds of warplanes to target state officials, it remains to be seen where the balance of power lies inside Iran.

For now, Iranian officials are united in mourning Khamenei, who held on to power without challenge for 36 years.

The government has declared seven days of public holidays and 40 days of mourning and held large gatherings in Khamenei’s memory, including on Sunday night.