Iran’s judiciary chief continued his speech denouncing Israel without pause as an IDF missile exploded behind him during a mass pro-regime rally in Tehran on Friday, in scenes broadcast live on state television.
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei was addressing crowds gathered for the annual Quds Day demonstration when the blast occurred, pressing on regardless. “Our people are not afraid of the bombing, we will continue along this route,” he declared, adding that Iran stood with its people “against arrogance and Pharaoh-like oppressors.”
National security chief Ali Larijani, also in attendance, sought to frame the strikes as a sign of weakness rather than strength. “These attacks are out of fear, out of desperation. One who is strong wouldn’t bomb demonstrations at all,” he told state television. Larijani had said the previous day that President Trump would be “sorry” for what he called a “grave miscalculation” after Trump declared the US had won the war. On Friday he added that Trump “doesn’t understand that the Iranian people are a brave nation, a strong nation, a determined nation.”
Larijani’s appearance at the rally was among the most prominent public showings by a senior Iranian official since the 28 February strike that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a number of other top officials. Crowds marched through Tehran carrying images of both Ali Khamenei and his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei, while trampling on images of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported that one woman was killed during the rally after an explosion nearby. According to Press TV, the victim was fatally wounded by shrapnel from the strike. The Israeli army had earlier issued evacuation warnings for two areas in central Tehran close to the rally site.
The rally took place as the conflict entered its fourteenth day, with the war’s reach continuing to widen across the region. Explosions struck Dubai’s financial district on Friday morning after an Iranian drone hit the city, damaging a building in the International Finance Centre. Authorities confirmed no injuries. Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said its forces had intercepted dozens of drones, including one targeting the Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh. Two people were killed in Oman by drone debris, according to state media, while Turkey’s defence ministry confirmed NATO air defences had intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Iran into Turkish airspace — the third such incident in just over a week. Sirens were also reported at Incirlik airbase, a key NATO facility housing US forces.
France confirmed the death of its first soldier in the conflict on Friday. President Emmanuel Macron announced that Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion, of the 7th Battalion of Chasseurs Alpins, was killed in an attack on a base in the Erbil region of Iraq where French troops were conducting counter-terrorism training alongside Iraqi forces. Five others were injured in the same attack. Separately, a US military refuelling aircraft crashed in Iraq, killing four crew members, though the US military said the incident was not the result of hostile or friendly fire.
In Israel, a strike on the town of Zarzir left around 60 people injured, with images showing burned-out vehicles and blast craters. Lebanon’s authorities reported 687 people killed by Israeli strikes, including at least 12 in an attack Thursday on Beirut’s seafront, where displaced families have been sheltering in tents.
Meanwhile, Iran’s newly installed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is reportedly in a coma at Sina University Hospital in Tehran following an airstrike, and is said to be unaware of the ongoing war, the deaths of family members including his wife and son, and his own appointment as Supreme Leader. A source in Tehran said he remains in intensive care with a large section of the hospital sealed off under heavy security.
On Friday, President Trump posted on Truth Social claiming the US was “totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise,” and appeared to signal further escalation, writing: “Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.”
