In a message to the nation on Friday morning, hours after Israel struck locations in Tehran and other cities, Ayatollah Khamenei said the Zionist regime should await a harsh punishment.
“To the Great Iranian Nation!” the Leader’s message began, “the Zionist regime carried out with its evil and bloody hand a crime in our dear country and revealed its wicked nature further by hitting residential areas.”
“The regime should await a harsh response,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
The Leader said a number of commanders and scientists were assassinated in the strikes. “Their successors and colleagues will immediately pick up their work.”
“With this crime, the Zionist regime sealed for itself a bitter and painful destiny and will definitely see that [destiny] brought upon it,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
The Israeli regime began military strikes in and near the Iranian capital, Tehran, as well as other cities in Iran overnight on Friday.
Images showed damaged residential buildings in several locations in the capital. Eyewitnesses and reporters from the state TV said they saw the bodies of women and children among the victims.
IRNA