AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
As we've been reporting throughout the program today, Israel is pressing on with airstrikes in Iran for the second day. Yesterday, Israel killed Iran's supreme leader, and Iran is retaliating by launching attacks on many countries across the Middle East. We'll take you to the region now and two of our correspondents there, NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv and NPR's Aya Batrawy in Dubai. Good morning to you both.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Good morning.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So let's go to Aya first. What do you know of the Israeli strikes happening today?
BATRAWY: Well, they're hitting the heart of the capital of Iran, Tehran. That is the focus of their strikes today. Now, despite the airstrikes and dozens of people killed in Tehran alone since the start of this campaign Saturday, we've seen from state media some huge crowds amassing in another city called Yazd, packing a large square there. They were chanting against the U.S. and Israel, but mainly, they were there to mourn the assassination of 86-year-old Shia cleric and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on Saturday by Israeli airstrikes after nearly four decades at the helm. Also killed were the top - the country's top military leaders, including the defense minister and the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Council. I want you to have a listen to those crowds.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting in non-English language).
BATRAWY: So that was video of that massive crowd from state media. But we've also seen, Ayesha, videos trickling out that NPR has confirmed, showing people in Iran celebrating his death and chanting for the fall of the regime. But the regime is intact. It immediately announced an interim council of three, with hard-line regime clerics and the elected president now in charge and vowing to keep striking hard back, even though their leaders continue to be hit, even as I speak to you now.
RASCOE: Daniel, going to you, tell us what Israel has said about their strikes on Iran.
ESTRIN: Well, we've seen videos today of strikes pounding central Tehran, appearing to be in areas where Iran's police headquarters is located and also state television. Earlier today, Israeli - an Israeli military official briefed reporters about the entire campaign, which began yesterday. And Israel says its opening attack was targeting not just the supreme leader and killing him, but they say that the majority of Iran's highest ranking security officials were killed - around 40 officials in total. And then after that surprise initial blitz, Israel says its air force destroyed many of Iran's aerial defenses and destroyed half of Iran's missiles so far. Now, Iranian state media is saying that a girls' elementary school was hit, with nearly a hundred and fifty people killed. Israel says it's unaware of any Israeli military strikes in that area. The U.S. says it's looking into it.
RASCOE: As we said at the top, Iran is retaliating with missiles throughout the region. Daniel, what's it been like in Israel?
ESTRIN: Yeah. Israel says that Iran has fired dozens of missiles at Israel so far. There have been air raid sirens going off all day yesterday and some today. I visited earlier today an underground public bomb shelter in Tel Aviv. I met Hilah Shapira (ph). She's eight months pregnant. She slept overnight in the shelter.
HILAH SHAPIRA: The alarms keeps your anxiety alerted all the time. The frequency of the missile attacks are very, very close, so you don't have a lot of time to rest in between.
ESTRIN: So a lot of people describe just feeling tired and anxious. There was a 40-year-old woman who was killed Saturday night when a residential building was hit. We visited that site. We saw just a huge blast radius. There was a massive crater in the road there too. And I walked into one apartment that was damaged in that blast. A man there, Asaf Peretz (ph), was cleaning up the broken glass, and I asked him what he thought about all of the events that had just happened. He said it was too early to judge the repercussions of the killing of Khamenei.
ASAF PERETZ: Yeah. Khamenei is dead, so it's big, right? But now I'm inside my debris here, inside my house, and this is where my focus is. It's a game that we are not thoroughly understand.
ESTRIN: There was also a devastating missile strike today in central Israel, killing at least nine people, according to authorities.
RASCOE: Aya, what's it been like in Dubai with the waves of airstrikes?
BATRAWY: Well, targets here have been bases across the region where U.S. troops have a presence. So that includes in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and the Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. Now, many of these were missile strikes that were intercepted, but some were not, though no casualties were reported from those.
However, Iran's attacks, Ayesha, have also gone beyond just U.S. military targets in the region. They've also been hitting Dubai, where I am. This is the luxury commercial and tourism hub of the UAE, and this city has not seen missile and drone strikes like this before. But we've been seeing fiery debris in the skies since yesterday overnight and through the day from interceptions and the drones.
Schools are closed nationwide here as a precaution. The iconic Burj Al Arab hotel, that's shaped like a sail, caught fire from some of that debris. A luxury hotel on the palm-shaped island was also struck. High-rise towers here and in neighboring Bahrain were also hit, and Dubai's main port and one in Oman were targeted, as have been airports, like the one here in Dubai. This is the world's busiest for international travel and transit, and it's been closed since yesterday. So this is also disrupting connectivity between, you know, Asia and Europe.
RASCOE: So these strikes are wide and throughout the region. Aya, what do you think the repercussions will be?
BATRAWY: So Gulf countries have not responded militarily as of now, but they say they reserve the right to do so. And they've been holding calls with both Iran's foreign minister, but also they've - many of the leaders here have spoken with President Trump in the last 24 to 48 hours. Now, Iran says the bases located in these countries are being used against them, and so they're going to continue targeting those bases where there are U.S. troops. But, you know, again, Dubai is not known for having U.S. bases or U.S. positions. So the attacks, at least here in the UAE, seem to be directed at the country's image as a safe haven and because of the UAE's close ties with Israel. The UAE warned that if this continues, it will not stand by idly. So you're talking about Gulf countries potentially being dragged into direct attacks and this spiraling into a much bigger, longer war.
There were also violent clashes, by the way, near the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, and the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, after Khamenei's killing. But to bring this back to the Gulf, you know, the other major fallout is the Strait of Hormuz. That is where up to a third of the world's crude oil passes each day. And with ships there not transiting and one actually being hit today as well trying to transit, there are real concerns that oil is going to dramatically spike in price. There are some experts predicting a $20-a-barrel increase in price when markets open tomorrow.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Aya Batrawy in Dubai and Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Thank you so much to you both.
ESTRIN: You're welcome.
BATRAWY: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
