Iran presses Gulf attacks

IRAN was preparing to reveal its new supreme leader yesterday, after US-Israeli air strikes destroyed fuel dumps and triggered fires that choked much of Tehran in a thick blanket of smoke.

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The clerical body tasked with choosing a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khame-nei - killed just over a week ago in the strikes that triggered the war in the Middle East - has reached a decision, but not yet named the new leader.

"The vote to appoint the leader has taken place and the leader has been chosen," said Ahmad Alamolhoda, a member of the Assembly of Experts, as quoted by Iran's Mehr news agency.

Alamolhoda said the secretariat of the body would announce the name later. Other assembly members confirmed a decision was made, with one suggesting the son of the late leader would take the post.

Meanwhile, Iran struck Gulf infrastructure yesterday, hitting fuel tanks at Kuwait's international airport and damaging a desalination plant in Bahrain as Tehran pressed its missile and drone campaign against its neighbours into a second week.

Two border guards were also killed "while performing their national duty", Kuwait's interior ministry said without elaborating on the circumstances.

Neighbouring countries have borne much of Tehran's response after the US and Israel launched a massive air campaign against Iran, with 16 people, eight of them civilians, killed in the Gulf states since the war began, according to an AFP tally.