AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EST

Israeli strikes rock Tehran as Iran’s counterattacks widen after the killing of the supreme leader

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An enormous explosion rocked Iran’s capital Sunday as the Israeli military said it was targeting the heart of the city. Earlier, Iran fired missiles at an ever-widening list of targets in Israel and Gulf Arab states in retaliation for the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by the United States and Israel.

The blast in Tehran — whose target was not immediately clear — sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky and shook the ground. It appeared centered in neighborhoods home to the country’s police headquarters and Iranian state television, as well as Tehran’s Revolutionary Court and a Defense Ministry building.

Saturday’s joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran opened a stunning new chapter in U.S. intervention, and carried the potential for retaliatory violence and a wider war, representing a startling flexing of military might for an American president who swept into office on an “America First” platform and vowed to keep out of “forever wars.” It was the second time in eight months that the Trump administration has used military force against the Islamic Republic.

In a 12-day war in June, Israeli and American strikes greatly weakened Iran’s air defenses, military leadership and nuclear program. But the killing of Khamenei and a call by U.S. President Donald Trump for the Iranian people to overthrow their government significantly raises the stakes — creating a leadership vacuum in the Islamic Republic and increasing the risk of regional instability.

Iran’s Cabinet vowed that this “great crime will never go unanswered” and the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to target Israeli and American bases.

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The Latest: Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei killed in US-Israeli attack

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the United States, throwing the future of the Islamic Republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability.

Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early Sunday. U.S. President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country.

The announcements came after a joint U.S. and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” was to continue through the week or as long as necessary.

Iran responded by firing drones and missiles at Israel and U.S. military installations around the Gulf, and also at the global business hub of Dubai. Earlier Sunday, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to launch its “most-intense offensive operation” ever targeting Israel and U.S. bases.

Israel also continued its attacks on Iran with an enormous strike that targeted Tehran.

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Trump was once wary of ordering regime change in Iran. Here’s what made him change his mind

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — With Saturday’s military operation against Iran, President Donald Trump demonstrated a dramatic evolution in risk tolerance, adjusting in just a matter of months how far he was willing to go in using American military might to confront Tehran’s clerical rule.

Guardrails were tossed aside, as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered up a battle plan that included targeted strikes on Iran’s leadership, including the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei whose death Trump triumphantly announced in a social media post hours after launching the military operation.

For Trump, it was a far cry from where he stood just eight months ago. At Israel’s urging during its 12-day war with Iran last June, he agreed to deployB-2 bombers to pummel three key Iranian nuclear sites — but drew a bright red line when Israelis presented his administration with a plan for killing Khamenei.

The president peppered the supreme leader with thinly veiled threats back in June that he could have killed him if he wanted to. But he rejected the Israeli plan out of concern that it would destabilize the region.

That caution was set aside on Saturday with Trump announcing Khamenei had been killed, while the Israeli military announced it had taken out Iran’s defense minister and the commander of its Revolutionary Guard. Iranian state media early Sunday reported the 86-year-old Supreme Leader’s death, without elaborating on a cause.

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War powers debate intensifies after Trump orders attack on Iran without approval by Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — Key members of Congress are demanding a swift vote on a war powers resolution that would restrain President Donald Trump’s military attack on Iran unless the administration wins their approval for what they warn is a potentially illegal campaign that risks pulling the United States into a deeper Middle East conflict.

Both the House and Senate, where the president’s Republican Party has a slim majority, had already drafted such resolutions long before the strikes Saturday. Now they are ready to plunge into a rare war powers debate next week that will serve as a referendum on Trump’s decision to go it alone on military action without formal authorization from Congress.

“Has President Trump learned nothing from decades of U.S. meddling in Iran and forever wars in the Middle East?” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., a leader in the bipartisan effort. He said the strikes on Iran were “a colossal mistake.”

In the House, Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., are demanding Congress go on record with a public vote on their own bipartisan measure. “Congress must convene on Monday to vote,” Khanna said, “to stop this.”

Massie blasted Trump’s own presidential campaign slogan and said: “This is not ‘America First.’”

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Trump’s ‘America First’ campaign battle cry gives way to military strikes abroad

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump, whose fierce denunciation of military adventurism abroad fueled his unlikely rise to the top of the Republican Party, risks becoming ensnared by that very type of conflict.

The U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran Saturday cemented Trump’s decade-long transformation from a candidate who in 2016 called the Iraq War a “big, fat mistake” to a president warning Americans to prepare for potential casualties overseas and encouraging Iranians to “seize control of your destiny.” The strikes were also at odds with Trump’s warnings during the 2024 campaign that his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, was surrounded by “war hawks” eager to send troops overseas.

Trump justified the action as necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons or developing missiles capable of reaching the US, less than a year after he said airstrikes “obliterated” their capability. US intelligence has also said Iran’s weapons capability was substantially degraded.

For Trump, memories of the false pretenses underlying the Iraq War could lead to pressure to prove his assertion that Iran’s weapons production posed an imminent threat to Americans. And for Republicans already facing a challenging election year weighed down by economic anxiety, the shift could force a reassessment of how the attacks fit into the “America First,” isolationist-leaning movement the party has embraced during the Trump era.

While Trump might benefit from an early rally-around-the-flag effect, that could be hard to sustain for weeks and months, if not longer, a far different scenario from the swift effort to remove Nicolás Maduro from power earlier this year in Venezuela.

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Middle East airports closed and thousands of travelers stranded after attack on Iran

LONDON (AP) — The attack on Iran by the United States and Israel disrupted flights across the Middle East and beyond as countries around the region closed their airspace and key airports that connect Europe, Africa and the West to Asia were directly hit by strikes.

More than 3,400 flights were canceled Sunday across seven airports in the Mideast, according to flight tracker Flightradar24. Airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar’s capital, Doha, and Manama in Bahrain were among those closed.

Emirates Airlines suspended all flights to and from Dubai until at least Sunday afternoon. The Qatar airport was closed until at least Monday morning, according to Qatar Airways. Israeli airspace also remained closed Sunday. Israeli airline El Al said it was preparing a recovery effort to bring home Israelis stranded abroad once the airspace reopened.

Travelers were either stranded or diverted to other airports Saturday after Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain closed their airspace. There also was no flight activity over the United Arab Emirates, FlightRadar24 said, after the government there announced a “temporary and partial closure” of its airspace.

That led to the closure of key hub airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. The three major airlines that operate at those airports — Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad — typically have about 90,000 passengers per day crossing through those hubs and even more travelers headed to destinations in the Middle East, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

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World leaders urge return to talks after U.S. and Israeli strikes kill Iran leader Ali Khamenei

BRUSSELS (AP) — World leaders urged peace and a return to talks as the military strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran raised concerns about whether the violence could spread across the region and tensions rose with Iran vowing devastating blows after the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A massive explosion rocked the Iranian capital on Sunday morning as the Israeli military said it was targeting the “heart” of the city after stating it cleared the path to Tehran the day before. Meanwhile, Iran pressed on with its retaliation campaign: Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain said they intercepted a barrage of missiles.

Oman, which served as an interlocutor between Tehran and Washington in recent nuclear talks, said an oil tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz came under attack and its port at Duqm, used by the U.S. Navy as a logistical hub and capable of hosting aircraft carriers, was targeted in a drone attack.

The demise of Khamenei, who had no designated successor, will likely throw Iran’s future into uncertainty and exacerbate already growing concerns of a broader conflict.

Top diplomats from the 27 European Union nations are holding an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss the situation around Iran and the next steps for the bloc. The United Nations Security Council met late Saturday.

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At least 9 killed as Shiites storm US Consulate in Pakistan over killing of Iran’s supreme leader

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — At least nine people were killed and about two dozen were wounded in violent clashes with police and paramilitary forces Sunday after hundreds of protesters stormed the U.S. Consulate in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, authorities said.

The violence came hours after the United States and Israel attacked Iran and killed the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Police and officials at a hospital in Karachi said at least 25 people were also wounded in the clashes and some of them were in critical condition.

Summaiya Syed Tariq, a police surgeon at the city’s main government hospital, confirmed that initially six bodies and multiple injured people were brought to the facility. However, she said the death toll rose to nine after three critically wounded died.

The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan wrote on X that it was monitoring reports of ongoing demonstrations at the U.S. Consulates General in Karachi and Lahore, as well as calls for additional protests at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and the Consulate General in Peshawar. It advised U.S. citizens in Pakistan to monitor local news, stay aware of their surroundings, avoid large crowds and keep their travel registration with the U.S. government up to date.

Karachi is the capital of southern Sindh province and Pakistan’s largest city.

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Pakistan carries out airstrikes inside Afghanistan as ‘open war’ on border continues

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s military, backed by artillery and air power, struck more military installations deep inside Afghanistan overnight after Pakistan said it was in “open war” with its eastern neighbor.

Pakistan on Saturday claimed more than 330 Afghan forces had been killed since fighting erupted Thursday night during a broad Afghan cross-border attack into Pakistan. Afghanistan rejected the figures as false.

The casualty figures provided by either side could not be independently confirmed.

The fighting was in response to Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan last Sunday. Pakistan said it was targeting the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, or TTP. The group is separate but closely allied with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban. Afghanistan, however, said only civilians were killed in Sunday’s airstrike.

After the Afghan attack, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif declared Friday: “Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.”

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Worms in food, poor medical care, lights on 24/7: Families tell of life in Texas detention center

LAREDO, Texas (AP) — A month after ICE agents sent the young Ecuadorian mother and her 7-year-old daughter to a sprawling detention center 1,300 miles from their Minnesota home, they were finally free.

But when the bus pulled up to a migrant shelter in the border city of Laredo, dropping off a half-dozen families lugging bags stuffed with belongings, the stress of recent weeks tracked mother and daughter like the long shadows on that mid-February afternoon.

Night after night inside south Texas’ Dilley Immigration Processing Center with hundreds of other families, the grade-schooler wept and pleaded to know why they were being held.

“She would tell me, ‘Mom, what crime did I commit to be a prisoner?’ I didn’t know what to tell her,” said the 29-year-old, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear being identified could negatively affect their immigration case. Her husband was deported to Ecuador soon after they were taken into custody.

Many Americans were alarmed last month when photos circulated showing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis detaining a 5-year-old boy wearing a bunny hat and carrying a Spiderman backpack. The concern followed Liam Conejo Ramos and his father when they were sent to Dilley, surrounded by chain-link fences on a dusty plain about 75 miles south of San Antonio.