WRAPUP 2-More strikes aimed at Iran after US, Israeli assault kills supreme leader

DUBAI/JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Israel said it launched another wave of strikes on Iran on Sunday, as Iranians grappled with uncertainty after the killing of their supreme leader in U.S. and Israeli attacks that threaten to destabilize the wider Middle East.

Hours after both nations said an air strike killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the most ambitious series of attacks on Iran in decades, the country's state media confirmed the 86-year-old leader's death on Saturday.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the air strikes aimed to end a decades-long threat from Iran and ensure it could not develop a nuclear weapon, as he sought to justify a risky gambit that seemed to contradict his professed opposition to American involvement in complex overseas conflicts.

"This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS," Trump wrote on Truth Social after Khamenei's body was found.

Experts said that while the deaths of Khamenei and other Iranian leaders would deal the country a major blow, it would not necessarily spell the end of Iran's entrenched clerical rule or the Revolutionary Guards' sway over the population.

Israel's military said it targeted Iran’s ballistic missile and air defense systems with strikes on Sunday morning.

Iran's armed forces would soon retaliate again with their biggest offensive against U.S. bases and Israel, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vowed in a statement on Sunday.

Shortly after 6 a.m., air raid sirens repeatedly sounded across Israel, warning residents of an incoming attack. In Tel Aviv, a series of explosions were heard as Israel’s sophisticated air defense system sought to intercept the latest Iranian offensive. There was no immediate report of any damage or injuries.

Witnesses in the Gulf cities of Dubai and Doha heard several loud blasts.

Iran had responded to Saturday's initial attacks by launching hundreds of missiles and drones targeting U.S. troops and cities in Israel and Arab countries allied with Washington, prompting widespread cancellations of Middle East flights.

The Pentagon said there were no U.S. deaths or injuries, but the strikes raised concerns of new risks for Americans.

A senior U.S. intelligence official told Reuters that while the largest threat stemming from the attack was against U.S. military personnel in the region, cyber attacks could also target critical U.S. infrastructure.

IRAN POUNDS KEY REGIONAL FACILITIES IN RESPONSE

Major Middle Eastern airports, including Dubai, the world’s busiest international travel hub, were shut on Saturday after the strikes on Iran's missile retaliation unleashed one of global aviation's most severe disruptions in years.

Dubai's landmark Burj Al Arab hotel and the airport, which handles more than 1,000 flights a day, were damaged in an overnight attack on sites across the Arab Gulf states that also hit airports in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait.

On Saturday, Tehran warned that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow conduit for about a fifth of global oil consumption, raising expectations of a sharp jump in oil prices.

Hundreds of civilians were killed and injured in the U.S. and Israeli strikes, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Saturday.

Iravani called Iran's retaliatory attacks a matter of self defence, describing the bases of hostile forces as legitimate military targets.

In his remarks, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who urged an immediate cessation of hostilities, said he deeply regretted that an opportunity for diplomacy had been "squandered."

SUPREME LEADER KILLED

Witnesses said some Iranians took to the streets in Tehran, the nearby city of Karaj and the central city of Isfahan to celebrate after reports of Khamenei's death emerged.

Videos posted on social media, which Reuters was unable to immediately verify, also showed celebrations elsewhere.

Israel and the United States timed the attacks to coincide with a meeting of Khamenei and his top aides, said two U.S. sources and a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

Khamenei was working in his office at the time of Saturday's attack, state media said, which also killed his daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law.

In a statement, the Revolutionary Guards mourned the loss of "a great leader."

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Iranians to rise up and overthrow their government after the attacks, which took out at least seven senior military commanders, Israel's military said.

FAILED NEGOTIATIONS

Israeli military operations over the past two years had already killed some of Iran's senior military officials and severely weakened several of Tehran's once-feared proxy forces across the Middle East.

After Israel pounded Iran in a 12-day air war in June, joined by the United States, both warned they would strike again if Iran persisted with nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

During the UN meeting, envoys from Russia and China criticized both countries for launching the strikes while Tehran was negotiating with Washington.

Iran had been "stabbed in the back," said Russian U.N. envoy Vasily Nebenzya, disputing the U.S. justification of the attacks as preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

China called for an immediate ceasefire, urging all sides to avoid escalation and resume talks, while the official Xinhua news agency criticised the attacks on Sunday as "brazen aggression against a sovereign nation".

Senior U.S. officials said the latest talks showed Iran was unwilling to give up its ability to enrich uranium, saying it was wanted for nuclear energy, although U.S. officials said it would enable the country to build a nuclear bomb.