Explosion rocks Iran’s capital as Israel says it is targeting the city after strikes killed Khamenei

An enormous explosion rocked Iran’s capital Sunday as the Israeli military said it was targeting the heart of the city. Earlier, Iran fired missiles at targets in Israel and Gulf Arab states after vowing massive retaliation for the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by the United States and Israel.

The blast in Tehran sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky and shook the ground. It wasn’t immediately clear what the target was. The blast appeared centered in a neighborhood that is home to the country’s police headquarters and Iranian state television. The Israeli military said it was striking targets in central Tehran.

Khamenei’s death in a joint Israeli-American airstrike Saturday on his Tehran office has thrown the future of the Islamic Republic into question and raised the risk of regional instability.

Iran’s Cabinet vowed that this “great crime will never go unanswered” and the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to launch