Within seconds of a cloud of smoke rising in downtown Tehran, Iran’s capital, panic and fear spread.
Within hours, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was dead – alongside masses of civilians, and three American troops.
We’ve mapped out the key areas in this war between the joint US and Israeli forces and Iran, including where retaliatory strikes have been confirmed.
Where did the US and Israel strike in Iran?
Israel, along with the US, launched a daylight attack on Iran’s capital, Tehran, on the morning of Saturday, February 28 (Iranian time).
The first strike happened near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his official residence in the capital city.
Footage showed civilians running in horror as blasts rocked the capital, many close to Khamenei’s compound, which is separated from Tehran’s presidential offices by a mosque.
The strike on Khamenei’s compound was visible on satellite imagery, while buildings nearby were also hit, according to the New York Times.
US President Donald Trump released a video confirming the US attack on Iran, saying the country’s objective was to “defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard terrible people”.
Another strike on Saturday hit 72nd Square, a residential area in Tehran’s north-east, about 13 kilometres from Khamenei’s compound. Iran’s former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, lived in the area, the Times reported.
Saturday’s strikes also hit an area near Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran’s Seyed Khandan area, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ headquarters in the city was destroyed on Sunday, the Times reported.
In southern Iran, at least 115 people were reported killed when girls’ elementary school Shajarah Tayyebeh was struck – one of two strikes that appeared to hit schools since US and Israeli warplanes launched their attack about 10am on Saturday.
State news agency IRNA said another at least 18 people were killed in the southwest. The agency quoted the governor of Lamerd, Ali Alizadeh, who said a sports hall, two residential areas and a hall near a school were hit.
By Monday, Israel had turned its attention to strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Explosions were heard in the south of Beirut, a known stronghold for the Iran-backed militant group. The strikes killed more than 30.
Where did Iran strike back?
Over the coming hours, blasts were reported across the region as Iran struck back.
A fire broke out at the luxury Fairmont The Palm Hotel in Dubai, the UAE’s largest city; as well as at the Dubai International Airport, where four people were injured, according to the Dubai Media Office.
Iranian strikes hit the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in the Bahraini capital of Manama on Saturday, and a drone struck Kuwait’s main airport, the Times reported.
Another four people were killed in the southern Syrian city of Sweida on Saturday, according to the publication.
On Sunday, Iran struck a base housing American troops in Kuwait, where three service members were killed, and five were seriously injured.
Israel’s ambulance service said nine people were killed and at least 28 injured by an Iranian missile strike on a residential building in the Beit Shemesh area of Israel.
On Monday, Iran continued retaliatory strikes across the Middle East, including an oil tanker off the coast of Oman, a drone that struck a US base in Kuwait, and the targeting of a British base in Cyprus.
How did the attack on Khamenei’s compound unfold?
When the first strike happened on Saturday, it wasn’t immediately clear whether 86-year-old Khamenei was in his offices at the time.
A regime official told Reuters that Khamenei was not in Tehran and had been transferred to a secure location. In an interview with NBC News, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Khamenei was still alive “as far as I know”, and one or two commanders may have been killed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said there were “many indications” Khamenei was dead.
Trump appeared on NBC news on Saturday night in the US, saying he believed reports of Khamenei’s death were true.
He later posted to Truth Social: “Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead. This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”
Iranian state media ultimately confirmed Khamenei’s death but it did not comment on its cause.
With Nick O’Malley, Tom Minear and APRead more on the US-Israel-Iran war:
