Tehran: The death toll from a joint United States-Israeli strike on a girls’ elementary school in Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan has risen to 148, according to local media reports on Sunday.
The attack left 95 others injured. Local prosecutor Ebrahim Taheri, quoted by the semi-official Tasnim News Agency, said most of the victims were pupils. Teachers, school staff and parents were also among those killed, Xinhua reported.
The strike was part of a broader wave of joint attacks launched by Israel and the United States on Saturday morning, targeting Tehran and several other Iranian cities, including Tabriz, Qom, Isfahan, Kermanshah and Karaj. In retaliation, Iran carried out missile and drone strikes aimed at Israel and United States bases across the region.
The attacks on Tehran reportedly killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Defence Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani, and Mohammad Pakpour, chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Meanwhile, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said late Saturday that military operations against Iran were continuing.
“CENTCOM is now delivering swift and decisive action as directed,” the command said in a post on X. In a separate statement issued earlier in the day, it said there had been no reported United States casualties and that no US Navy vessel had been struck.
“Damage to US installations was minimal and has not impacted operations,” it added.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth described the campaign, named Operation Epic Fury, as “the most lethal, most complex, and most precise aerial operation in history.”
He said Iran’s missiles and missile production capabilities would be destroyed, along with its navy, reiterating that, as President Donald Trump has long stated, Iran would never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon.
Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., a former head of US Central Command, told American media outlets that the next 72 to 96 hours would be critical in determining whether Iran can maintain a sustained barrage of retaliatory missile strikes against US bases and regional partners in the Middle East.
(With IANS inputs)