Israel expands Iran strikes as Tehran moves to name new supreme leader

By Parisa Hafezi and Maayan Lubell

DUBAI/JERUSALEM, March 8 (Reuters) - Israeli forces expanded ​their bombardment of Iran overnight, striking fuel depots near Tehran, while Bahrain said an Iranian attack had damaged one of its desalination plants, signalling a widening assault on vital infrastructure across the region.

As fighting ‌escalated on day nine of the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, Tehran moved closer to naming a new supreme leader after the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with every indication suggesting his powerful son Mojtaba, opens new tab could take charge.

Israel's military threatened to kill any replacement for Khamenei, while U.S. President Donald Trump said the war might only end once Iran's military and rulers had been wiped out.

BLACK SMOKE HANGS OVER TEHRAN

Thick, choking black smoke hung over Tehran on Sunday, residents said, after strikes on oil storage facilities, opens new tab had lit up the night sky with plumes of orange flame.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said ​the large-scale attack marked a "dangerous new phase" of the conflict and amounted to a war crime.

"By targeting fuel depots, the aggressors are releasing hazardous materials and toxic substances into the air, poisoning civilians, devastating the environment, and ​endangering lives on a massive scale," he wrote on X.

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters the depots were used to fuel Iran's war effort, including producing or storing ⁠propellant for ballistic missiles. "They are a legal military target," he said.

Shortly after the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would press on with the assault and strike Iran's rulers "without mercy".

"We have an organised plan with many surprises ​to destabilise the regime and enable change," he said in a video statement. "We have many more targets."

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he was not interested in negotiating an end to the conflict that has sent energy prices skyward, hurt business ​and snarled global travel.

"At some point, I don't think there will be anybody left maybe to say, 'We surrender'," Trump said.

IRANIAN DRONES STRIKE GULF STATES

The governments of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain reported Iranian drone attacks in their countries on Saturday and early Sunday, with a huge fire engulfing a government office block in Kuwait.

Kuwait's interior ministry said two of its officers were killed "while performing duties", while the UAE said four migrant workers had died in Iranian attacks there so far.

Showing the intensity of the offensive, the UAE said air defence teams ​had knocked out 16 ballistic missiles and 113 drones fired towards the Gulf state on Sunday. One missile fell in the sea and four drones hit the country's territories.

Bahrain said on Sunday that an Iranian drone attack had caused "material damage" to ​a desalination plant, though the country's electricity and water authority said the strike had not disrupted water supplies.

It was the first time an Arab country has said Iran targeted a desalination facility during the conflict. On Saturday, Iran said a U.S. attack had struck a ‌freshwater desalination plant ⁠on its Qeshm Island, disrupting water supplies in 30 villages, calling it "a dangerous move with grave consequences".

Saudi Arabia has told Tehran that continued Iranian attacks on the kingdom and its energy sector could push Riyadh to respond in kind, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Lebanon has also been pulled into the conflict after the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah launched rockets and drones into Israel last week, with nearly 400 people killed by Israel over the past week, the health ministry said.

Israel killed at least four people when it struck a hotel in central Beirut on Sunday, saying it had targeted Iranian commanders operating in the city — the first such strike on the heart of the Lebanese capital — amid heavy bombardment of the southern suburbs and the country's south ​and east.

IRAN GETTING CLOSER TO NAMING A NEW LEADER

The clerical ​body charged with choosing Iran's next supreme leader could ⁠meet as soon as Sunday to name a successor to Khamenei, who was killed in an attack early in the conflict, Iranian media reported.

A majority consensus over the successor has more or less been reached, said Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Mohammad Mehdi Mirbaqeri, according to the Mehr news agency.

Another member of the council, Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari Alekasir, said in a video that a ​candidate had been selected based on Khamenei's guidance that Iran's top leader should be "hated by the enemy".

Two Iranian sources told Reuters last week that the clear favourite was Khamenei's ​son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who amassed power ⁠under his father as a senior figure in the security forces and the vast business empire they control. Choosing him would signal that hardliners remain firmly in charge.

Trump has justified the biggest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by saying Tehran posed an imminent threat to the United States, without providing evidence. He has also said Iran was too close to being able to build a nuclear weapon.

The U.S. and Israel have discussed sending special forces into Iran to secure its stockpile of ⁠highly enriched uranium ​at a later stage of the war, Axios reported, citing four people with knowledge of the discussions.

Asked on Saturday about sending ground troops to secure ​nuclear sites, Trump said it was something they could do "later on."

The U.S.-Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and wounded thousands, according to Iran's U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani.

Iranian attacks have killed 10 people in Israel. At least six U.S. service members have been killed, with Iran saying on Sunday it ​had struck U.S. bases in Kuwait. Israel said on Sunday that two of its soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon.

Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by John Geddie and Crispian Balmer; Editing by William Mallard, Alex Richardson and Ros Russell