The Iranian Revolutionary Guards declared on Sunday, March 1st, that they targeted the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf after American and Israeli strikes killed the country’s supreme leader. “The American aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln was hit by four ballistic missiles,” the Guards said in a statement relayed by local media, warning that “land and sea will increasingly become the cemetery of terrorist aggressors.”
The Pentagon stated that the American aircraft carrier was not hit by Iranian missiles. The Centcom responded, “The missiles fired did not even come close. The Lincoln continues to launch aircraft in support of Centcom’s relentless campaign to defend Americans by eliminating threats from the Iranian regime.”
“Death to America”, “Death to Israel”
Iran called for revenge for the death of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. In response to the unprecedented joint Israeli-American campaign where several top Iranian officials perished on Saturday, the Islamic Republic launched widespread strikes against several neighboring countries, including those hosting American bases and Israel. President Masoud Pezeshkian stated that avenging the death of the supreme leader was a “right and legitimate duty,” condemning it as a “declaration of war against Muslims.”
Thousands gathered in central Tehran, some in tears, waving Iranian flags chanting “Death to America”, “Death to Israel,” according to an AFP reporter on site. Even in Shiraz, the major southern city, a crowd urged the army to “avenge” the death of the supreme leader, according to the Tasnim news agency.
As the US and Israel vowed to continue their strikes, several explosions were heard in the morning in the capital, reported journalists from AFP, just before the Israeli army claimed to strike “at the heart of Tehran.”
Many Strikes by Iran
Iran carried out strikes for the second consecutive day against the Gulf monarchies, close allies of the United States, leading to at least two deaths in the United Arab Emirates. Journalists from AFP heard new explosions in Dubai, UAE, as well as in Doha and Manama. Oman, a mediator in the negotiations that resumed in early February between Iran and the US, was targeted for the first time on Sunday.
7 Iranian officials killed
In Tehran, the transition of power will be managed by a triumvirate consisting of Masoud Pezeshkian, Supreme Judicial Power chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, and Alireza Arafi, a high-ranking religious figure, a member of the Revolutionary Guards Council, according to a state media report. In neighboring Iraq, hundreds of protesters tried to storm the heavily fortified US embassy in Baghdad on Sunday, observed an AFP journalist.
