Senior Israeli security sources said the strike targeted the Assembly of Experts’ building as a vote was taking place to replace Khamenei.
The building of the Assembly of Experts in the Iranian city of Qom was struck on March 3, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
Senior Israeli security sources told Epoch Magazine Israel that the strike targeted the Assembly of Experts’ building as the 88-member assembly was voting to choose a successor to the slain Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to Tasnim News Agency, the building in Qom’s Resalat Square was empty at the time. The Iranian publication reported that other nearby residential buildings and shops were damaged in the attack.
“We are still assessing the results of the strike,” an Israeli military spokesman said in a Tuesday press briefing.
Khamenei was killed at his leadership compound in Tehran on Feb. 28 in the opening salvo of a joint U.S.–Israeli attack. This decapitation strike targeted two other gatherings of senior Iranian military and intelligence officials.
On March 1, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said a temporary leadership council had assumed Khamenei’s responsibilities as the supreme political and clerical leader of Iran.
Governed as a Shiite Islamic republic, Iran’s current theocratic constitution assigns to the Assembly of Experts the responsibility for selecting a new ayatollah.
Members of the Assembly of Experts are chosen every eight years through a popular election, though their candidacy must be approved in advance by the Guardian Council. The ruling ayatollah selects half of the Guardian Council, providing a degree of loyalty in the process for vetting of candidates for the Assembly of Experts.
In a Feb. 28 Truth social post following Khamenei’s death, President Donald Trump said, “This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.”
Trump said Iranian military and police forces are seeking immunity, and expressed hopes that they will “peacefully merge with the Iranian patriots” to bring Iran back to “the Greatness it deserves.”
By Ryan Morgan
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Joseph Lord, Reuters, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This is a breaking report and will be updated with additional details.
