US President Donald Trump’s decision to launch a sweeping military strike against Iran, which resulted in the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, followed weeks of sustained diplomatic pressure from Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to The Washington Post. Citing officials familiar with internal deliberations, the newspaper reportedly said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed...

Updated: Mar 1st, 2026 The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday said Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed inside his leadership compound in central Tehran, asserting that the operation marked the end of what it described as a decades-long chapter of terror directed against Israel.  Khamenei was killed in an epochal attack by the US and Israel, marking...

Updated: Mar 1st, 2026 Hours after long-time Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli airstrike, Iran on Sunday named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi as his interim successor.  Ayatollah Khamenei, whose death in an attack on his residential compound in Tehran was announced by Iran, had been the Supreme Leader since 1989 after the passing away of the 1979 Iranian...

Amid ongoing tensions in the Middle Eastern region, the Indian Embassy in Lebanon has advised all Indian nationals to avoid unnecessary travel, remain vigilant and observe locally advised safety and emergency procedures.  The embassy asked Indian nationals in Lebanon to contact it on its mobile number or through email in case of any emergency. In the advisory issued on Sunday,...

Updated: Mar 1st, 2026 Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Sunday allegedly claimed it had struck an American vessel in the Indian Ocean as part of the fifth wave of its ‘Operation True Promise 4’, targeting US assets in the region, as per reports. In a statement issued on March 1, the IRGC said an American naval base in...

Iran’s police intelligence chief, Brigadier General Gholamreza Rezaian, has been killed in US and Israeli strikes on the country, as per local media reports. “General Gholamreza Rezaian, head of the national police intelligence, was killed following yesterday’s enemy attacks,” the semi-official Iranian local news media, Fars News Agency, said, citing informed sources. Other Iranian media outlets carried similar reports. Rezaian,...

Updated: Mar 1st, 2026 The Iranian Embassy in India lowered its flag to half-mast after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s killing in a US-Israel strike. Khamenei was killed in an epochal attack by the US and Israel, marking an inflexion point in the 46-year Shia-theocratic rule, as Tehran’s retaliation set off conflagrations in a swath of the Middle East. In...

Updated: Mar 1st, 2026 China’s foreign ministry has expressed concern over US-Israeli strikes on Iran and called for an immediate ceasefire, urging all parties to avoid further escalation and return to dialogue and negotiations, as per reports. In a statement issued on Saturday, the ministry said Iran’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity should be respected. On Sunday, the Chinese embassy...

Updated: Mar 1st, 2026 Protests turned violent near the US Consulate on Mai Kolachi Road in Pakistan’s Karachi on Sunday following the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in coordinated US-Israeli airstrikes, local media reported.  Visuals circulating on social media showed doors and windows smashed and set on fire, and chaotic scenes outside the consulate premises, with demonstrators...

Updated: Mar 1st, 2026 The death toll from a joint US-Israeli strike on a girls’ elementary school in Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan rose to 148, local media reported on Sunday.  The attack also left 95 people wounded, local prosecutor Ebrahim Taheri was quoted as saying by semi-official Tasnim news agency. He said the majority of the victims of the...