Israel launches assassination attempt on Iranian security chief who taunted Trump on the streets of Tehran: Live updates

On the 14th day of the war Ali Larijani, the brutal Iranian regime’s security chief, sought to taunt Donald Trump from the streets of Tehran.

Larijani, 67, joined an annual Quds Day march and, as an explosion rocked Ferdowsi Square, he ranted to a state media TV camera that America would be defeated.

‘The attacks they carry out are out of fear, out of desperation,’ he claimed. ‘Trump’s problem is that he doesn’t understand the Iranian nation is wise and determined.’ Around him chants erupted of ‘Death to Israel’ and ‘Death to America.’

Amid such anti-American grandstanding, it may come as surprise to some – including to those chanting around him and his X followers – how closely linked Larijani’s family is to the US, and to Canada and the UK.

Indeed, it may also explain why some in the West had previously seen him as a potentially pragmatic figure the US could deal with in the wake of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s death on the opening day of the war.

Larijani is one of five brothers dubbed the ‘Kennedys of Iran’ who have reached senior roles in the Iranian regime.

He has relatives in Canada and the UK but, perhaps most surprisingly, his daughter has spent the best part of a decade in the US.

Israeli media are reporting the IDF has launched an assassination attempt on Iranian security chief Ali Larijani.

According to media reports, the IDF is investigating whether Larijani was killed following an attack.

It comes four days after he marched alongside thousands of Iranians at a Quds Day rally in Tehran where he criticised Trump during a live interview.

An explosion is captured in Baghdad

A drone and rocket attack targeted the US embassy in Baghdad this morning, while a strike killed four people at a house hosting Iranian advisors, security officials said.

The strikes came hours after air defences thwarted a rocket attack at the embassy and a drone sparked a fire at a luxury hotel frequented by foreign diplomats in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone.

Iraq was drawn into the Middle East war after having long been a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran, with strikes targeting Iran-backed groups that have claimed daily attacks on US interests in Iraq and across the region.

Meanwhile, a strike on a house in Baghdad killed four people early Tuesday, with initial reports suggesting that two of the dead were ‘Iranian advisors’ to Tehran-backed groups, a security source told AFP.

Another source from an Iran-backed faction confirmed that four people were killed in the strike on a house hosting Iranian advisors in al-Jadiriyah neighbourhood.

The attacks came shortly after the powerful Tehran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group announced that its senior security commander Abu Ali al-Askari had been killed, without providing details on the circumstances of his death.

Firefighters extinguish a fire following an Israeli airstrike in Beirut

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the US-Israel war with Iran as the conflict enters its 18th day.

Here’s the main developments so far:

• The US embassy has been attacked with drones and rockets in the Iraqi capital Baghdad
• Oil prices jumped more than 5% today after countries pushed back against Donald Trump’s demand to help secure the Strait of Hormuz
• A major UAE oil terminal was attacked in a new drone strike causing a fire after the complex was hit on Monday
• An ‘unknown projectile’ struck a tanker off the coast of Oman, a UK maritime agency said Tuesday, noting there were no reported injuries and only ‘minor structural damage’
• Israel’s army said Tuesday it had launched a “wide scale wave of strikes” in the Iranian capital Tehran and started striking Hezbollah targets in the Lebanese capital Beirut

Stick with us as we bring you the latest developments throughout the day