Israel bombs council during vote count for Iran's next supreme leader - Axios
Israel’s air force struck the building housing Iran’s Council of Experts in the holy city of Qom on Tuesday in an attempt to disrupt the process of appointing a new supreme leader, Axios reported, citing an Israeli defense official.
The official said the strike occurred while votes were being counted and that the aim was to prevent the clerical body from selecting a successor to former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated on Saturday in the first wave of Israeli strikes.
"We wanted to prevent them from picking a new supreme leader," Axios quoted the unnamed Israeli official as saying.
It was not immediately clear how many of the council’s 88 members were in the building at the time or the extent of the damage, the report said.
Images from the briefing showed spokesperson Esmail Baghaei speaking from a podium inside Mahalati School in Tehran. Iranian outlets said the school had been hit in recent attacks and presented the setting as evidence that educational facilities were being targeted.
Holding an official briefing in a classroom also prompted renewed speculation online that some officials may be seeking to operate from civilian buildings.
In recent days, social media users have circulated videos and photographs that appear to show security forces stationed inside schools in Tehran and Shiraz.
Iran International has also reported on security activity inside medical facilities. In one case, it cited a hospital employee who said military commanders held meetings inside a Tehran hospital.
Military presence in civilian sites
Teachers’ unions have voiced alarm. The Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations published an image a day before US-Israeli strikes began showing what it said was military equipment positioned inside a school, warning that classrooms were being turned into “shields for deadly equipment.”
Earlier this week, an image was released from a meeting of the interim leadership council, attended by President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and cleric Alireza Arafi.
Hours later, social media posts suggested the meeting had taken place in a ward at Tehran’s Arman Hospital.
International humanitarian law requires parties to distinguish between civilians and combatants, and between civilian objects and military objectives.
Schools and hospitals are protected unless, and for such time as, they are used for military purposes, and the use of civilians to shield military objectives is prohibited.
Disputed strike in Minab
The controversy intensified after Iranian media reported that an elementary and preschool complex in Minab, Hormozgan province, adjacent to an IRGC compound, was struck on February 28, killing more than 160 people.
Asked about the incident, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would not deliberately target a school and that its objectives were focused on missiles, related manufacturing and launch capabilities, and drones.
"We would have no interest and frankly no incentive to target civilian infrastructure.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said on Monday he had seen differing accounts of what happened in Minab, including claims that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were responsible. He said Israel targets military assets and expressed regret for civilian casualties.
“We regret the loss of life of any civilian. And we pray for the people of Iran. But we have the intelligence and we target military assets. That’s what we do. The Iranians, they do exactly the opposite,” he said.
As the conflict deepens, any overlap between official or security activity and civilian sites could increase the risks for densely populated areas and raise further legal and humanitarian concerns.
