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Israeli strikes on March 3 struck the building housing Iran’s Council of Experts in the holy city of Qom in an attempt to disrupt the process of appointing a new supreme leader, Axios reported, citing anIsraeli defense official.
The official told the American news website that the strike took place while votes were being counted. It isn’t clear how many of the council’s 88 members were in the building at the time, or the extent of the damage.
“We wanted to prevent them from picking a new supreme leader,” the official said.
The Council of Experts has the authority to appoint a new supreme leader. The clerics on the council vote on a short list of candidates being drafted by a smaller secret committee.
Former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening strikes of the ongoing American-Israeli war against Iran, along with dozens of senior leaders of the Islamic Republic.
The Israeli strikes were also reported by Tasnim news agency, which said that “American-Zionist criminals attacked the Assembly of Experts building in Qom”. Video footage showing the building severely damaged after the strikes were also released.
No session was being held in the building at the time of the strike, however, according to Fars news agency, which said that the final phase of selecting a new supreme leader was undergoing, but voting is being conducted remotely for security reasons.
Still, United States President Donald Trump said later in the day that the new strikes targeted another set of Iranian leaders, asserting that the impact appears “pretty substantial.”
“There was another hit today on the new leadership, and it looks like that was pretty substantial,” he said from the Oval Office. “So they’re getting hit very hard.”
Separately, another wave of strikes hit the Iranian capital, Tehran. The Israeli military said that the strikes hit “infrastructure and sites used by the regime for the production of weapons, with an emphasis on ballistic missile production sites.”
Violent strikes also hit Mehrabad Airport near the capital. The strikes wrecked the airport, and destroyed at least one civilian airliner.
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In the province of Isfahan, the Israeli military said, it struck dozens of Iranian ballistic missile launchers and missile storage sites.
The U.S. Central Command also released video footage showing some of its recent strikes on Iran. Most of the strikes hit ballistic missile launchers and drones.
Iran, from its side, responded with several waves of missile attacks on Israel, targeting mainly the center of the country. The Magen David Adom, Israel’s main ambulance service, said that at least 12 people were wounded, including one in moderate condition.
Tel Aviv District commander Haim Sargaroff told Hebrew media that impacts from ballistic missiles armed with cluster warheads were reported at multiple locations in the center of the country.
The U.S. and Israel have so far failed to neutralize the offensive capabilities of Iran, despite launching thousands of strikes.
The battle will heat up further in coming days, and a ceasefire seems out of discussion. The war will likely go on for weeks, if not months. Both sides appear to be prepared for this possibility.
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