JUST IN: Iran’s Remaining Officials Obliterated After Strikes During Meeting To Elect New Leader

Israel struck at the heart of Iran’s succession process Tuesday, hitting the building housing the regime’s Council of Experts in the holy city of Qom as clerics worked to appoint a new supreme leader after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death, an Israeli defense official said.

The strike was aimed at disrupting the regime’s ability to quickly replace Khamenei and reestablish control after the first wave of attacks decapitated Iran’s leadership over the weekend.

The Council of Experts is the only body within Iran’s Islamic Republic with the formal authority to appoint a new supreme leader. The 88-member clerical council votes on candidates drawn from a shortlist prepared by a smaller secret committee.

Former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was assassinated Saturday in the opening wave of Israeli strikes, along with dozens of senior Iranian leaders, triggering a chaotic scramble inside the regime to prevent a power vacuum.

An Israeli defense official said Tuesday’s strike hit while votes were being counted.

It is not clear how many members of the council were inside the building at the time of the attack, nor the extent of the damage. Still, the intent was unmistakable: prevent Tehran’s ruling class from quietly installing a new figurehead and moving on as if nothing happened.

🚨 JUST IN: Footage released of Iran’s Islamic “Assembly of Experts” building in Tehran BLOWN UP by Israel, where they were trying to meet and choose a new Supreme Leader

Incredible timing.

Their Muslim “experts” are gone now. KEEP HITTING THEM HARD!pic.twitter.com/wY6uJEiTlr https://t.co/ed701v2m6a

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 3, 2026

“We wanted to prevent them from picking a new supreme leader,” the official said.

The strike marks a dramatic escalation in a fast-expanding conflict. Instead of focusing only on missiles, nuclear-linked sites and military command posts, Israel is now targeting the political and clerical machinery that keeps Iran’s regime alive.

RELATED: Ayatollah Khamenei’s Wife Dies After Injuries From Airstrikes

For decades, the Islamic Republic has survived by replacing leaders, crushing dissent and projecting the image of a permanent, divinely ordered system. Now, its supreme leader is dead, its top commanders have been wiped out and the clerical body tasked with selecting the next ruler has come under direct attack.

Even without confirmed casualty figures from inside the council chamber, the message to Tehran is crushing: there will be no smooth transition, no clean reset and no easy path to restoring the old order.

RELATED: BREAKING: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei Confirmed Dead

As Iran reels from the loss of Khamenei, the strike in Qom shows the fight has moved beyond battlefield targets and into the regime’s core survival mechanism. Whether the council was destroyed outright or simply thrown into panic, the result is the same, Iran’s remaining power brokers are now running out of places to hide.

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