Israel “flattened” the building housing Iran’s Assembly of Experts in the holy city of Qom — the clerical body constitutionally tasked with selecting the Islamic Republic’s next supreme leader — as Israeli warplanes continued pounding the regime’s central leadership compound and command infrastructure in Tehran on the fourth day of the joint U.S.–Israeli campaign.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed Tuesday that the Israeli Air Force struck the Assembly’s compound in Qom, a major center of Shiite religious authority located south of Tehran, with Iranian state media acknowledging the attack and airing footage showing extensive structural damage.
Several Iranian outlets described the building as “flattened,” though casualty figures remain unclear.
“We wanted to prevent them from picking a new supreme leader,” an Israeli defense official said following the strike.
Israeli media reported that the full 88-member clerical body was not present and that only officials responsible for counting ballots were inside when the building was hit. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency disputed that account, insisting no formal session had taken place at the site due to security concerns and claiming members were deliberating in what it described as a “secure environment,” adding that a new leader could be named within hours or days.
Fox News reported that multiple Iranian officials involved in counting the votes were killed in the strike, while Israeli journalist Amit Segal said the council’s secretary was among the dead and that the ballot box was burned. Those claims have not been independently confirmed.
Under provisions of Iran’s constitution, the Assembly of Experts — an 88-member body of clerical jurists vetted by the Guardian Council — must appoint a new supreme leader “within the shortest possible time” following the death of the incumbent.
The body has presided over only one such transition since the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979 — elevating Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 1989 after the death of regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini.
Khamenei, who ruled Iran for more than three decades and exercised ultimate authority over the military, judiciary, and foreign policy, was eliminated Saturday in the opening wave of the joint U.S.–Israeli offensive. Israeli intelligence officials later said that more than 40 of Iran’s most senior figures were removed in roughly 40 seconds during a single coordinated strike that decapitated the regime’s top leadership at the outset of the campaign.
Until a successor is formally named, Iran is being governed by an interim three-man leadership council composed of President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, and Ayatollah Alireza Arafi — who also serves as a deputy chairman of the Assembly of Experts.
The strike in Qom came as the Israeli Air Force carried out a separate, large-scale assault on what the IDF described as the regime’s “most important and central headquarters” in the heart of Tehran.
According to the military, approximately 100 fighter jets dropped more than 250 munitions overnight on the leadership complex, which spans several streets and houses Iran’s presidential bureau, the headquarters of the Supreme National Security Council, a compound used by the regime’s senior security forum, and an institution responsible for training Iranian military officers.
“The leadership and security officials of the terror regime convened in the compound frequently,” the IDF said Tuesday, adding that from the site officials conducted situational assessments regarding Iran’s nuclear program and advanced plans aimed at the destruction of the State of Israel.
The military described the complex as one of the most heavily secured assets in Iran and said the strike further degraded the regime’s command-and-control systems and operational continuity.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin confirmed the Qom strike earlier Tuesday and said the results were still being examined, as additional waves of attacks targeted ballistic missile launchers, air defense systems, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps infrastructure across Tehran and western Iran.
Shortly before the strike in Qom, the Mossad’s Persian-language account posted on X: “No matter who is chosen today, his fate is sealed. Only the Iranian people will choose their future leader.”
Operation Roaring Lion — Israel’s designation for the campaign — is being conducted alongside the U.S. operation dubbed Epic Fury. In the first 48 hours alone, U.S. Central Command confirmed that more than 1,250 targets were struck across Iran, including command-and-control centers, missile production and launch sites, naval assets, and air defense systems.
With Tehran’s central leadership compound damaged and the building of the clerical body responsible for selecting the Islamic Republic’s highest authority struck in Qom, the campaign has now targeted both the regime’s operational nerve center and the constitutional mechanism tasked with preserving its continuity.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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