First US service members killed in operation against Iran

Three members of the US military have been killed and five others wounded in the operation against Iran, the Pentagon said Sunday, announcing the first American deaths in the US-Israeli campaign that killed the Islamic republic's supreme leader.

Iran launched a new round of retaliatory attacks across the Gulf on Sunday after vowing to avenge the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, defying a threat from President Donald Trump to strike with unprecedented force.

As crowds gathered in Tehran, with some grieving and others celebrating, explosions rang out and the Israeli military announced it was again striking targets in the heart of the capital.

"Three US service members have been killed in action and five are seriously wounded as part of Operation Epic Fury," the Pentagon said, adding several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions. "Major combat operations continue and our response effort is ongoing."

Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced a "large-scale" attack on Sunday, and blasts were heard in Riyadh, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Manama, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with Israeli rescue services reporting at least nine people killed in the city of Beit Shemesh.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian declared Khamenei's killing a "declaration of war against Muslims" and warned: "Iran considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators and masterminds of this historic crime."

Israel described Khamenei's death as a "first step", and military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani boasted that the joint operation "eliminated 40 senior commanders, including Khamenei, in one minute in two different locations over a thousand miles from Israel in broad daylight".

In a social media post that adopted Trump's style and rhetoric, Ali Larijani, the powerful head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, declared: "Today we will hit them with a force that they have never experienced before."

International reactions have been mixed, with Pope Leo XIV urging both sides to end "the spiral of violence", while China condemned Khamenei's killing as a "serious violation of Iran's sovereignty".

France expressed satisfaction at the death of "a bloodthirsty dictator who oppressed his people, degraded women, young people and minorities".