Chaos signals Iran struggling to function as war turns into fight for survival

Strikes on Iranian leadership are putting Tehran under unprecedented military and diplomatic pressure

Iran endured a day of unprecedented military and diplomatic pressure on Tuesday as US airstrikes pushed the death toll in the country close to 800 and the offices of the assembly of experts – the body due to select a replacement for the assassinated supreme leader, Ali Khamenei – were bombed.

It would be an extraordinary security lapse if it emerges that many of the 88 elderly clerics on the assembly had been in the building in Qom voting at the time. “There was another hit today on the new leadership, and it looks like that was pretty substantial,” Trump said at a White House event, although it was unclear what specifically he was talking about.

In Tehran, a building that is home to a body that mediates between Iran’s parliament and the Guardian Council of clerics and lawyers was also attacked.