Ex-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad killed in strikes, Israeli media reports

His tenure was defined by a hardline stance on Iran’s nuclear programme, strained relations with the West, and the disputed 2009 re-election that sparked widespread Green Movement protests.

It comes after Iran officially announced the death of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hours after declaring the 86-year-old was "safe and sound".

A statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard read: "We have lost a great leader and we are mourning him, a leader who was unique in terms of purity of spirit, strength of faith, resourcefulness in affairs, courage in the face of the arrogant, and jihad in the path of God."

On Iranian state news channel IRINN, images of the late leader reciting the Qur’an were broadcast beneath a black banner.

The presenter read a statement from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council confirming the 86-year-old’s death.

Israel and the US were blamed, with the statement describing the Ayatollah’s “martyrdom” as the beginning of an “uprising against the oppressors”.

The Supreme National Security Council did not name a successor in its announcement, as 40 days of mourning across the country was put in place.

According to Iranian state TV, he “was carrying out his assigned duties and was present at his workplace” at the time of his death.

Israel claimed responsibility for killing Khamenei, in what it said was a "precise, large-scale operation" guided by intelligence, while he was in his central leadership compound in the heart of Tehran.

It said it aimed to dominate the skies over Tehran, giving no sign of planning an end to the biggest aerial operation in its history, involving hundreds of fighter jets.

"We have the capabilities and the targets to keep going on for as long as necessary," Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said.

Donald Trump warned the US would hit Iran "with a force that has never been seen before" if it struck back.

But as Iran fired renewed missile barrages across the region, Israel's ambulance service said nine people were killed in the town of Beit Shemesh, the United Arab Emirates said Iranian attacks killed three people and Kuwait reported one dead.

Three U.S. service personnel were also killed and five seriously wounded, the first American casualties of the operation, the U.S. military said.

President Trump said on social media the US military had destroyed nine Iranian warships so far and was "going after the rest".

Inside Iran, some grieved for Khamenei while others celebrated his death, exposing a deep fault line in a country stunned by the sudden demise of the man who ruled for decades.

Thousands of Iranians were killed in a crackdown authorised by Khamenei against anti-government protests in January, the deadliest wave of unrest since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Footage from Tehran showed mourners packed into a square, dressed in black and many of them weeping.

But videos posted on social media also showed joy and defiance elsewhere, with people cheering as a statue was toppled in the city of Dehloran in Ilam province, dancing in the streets of Karaj city, near Tehran in Alborz province, and celebrating in the streets of Izeh in Khuzestan province.