Iran defiant, US vows even heavier bombing; $10m reward for information on Iranian leaders

Iranian officials led a pro-government rally in Tehran as explosions rocked the city on Friday, while the United States vowed it would intensify strikes in the coming hours and days.

The hardline stances and renewed strikes unleashed by Israel and Iran presaged no let-up in the conflict engulfing the Middle East and roiling the global energy market.

AFP journalists in Tehran reported loud blasts over the city as Israel's military said it had carried out 7,600 strikes in Iran since the war started on February 28, with most targeting the country's missile programme.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told a news conference the US military would bombard Iran more heavily on Friday than any other day so far in the war.

He also said Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was "wounded and likely disfigured" in the attack that killed his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei at the start of the US-Israeli campaign.

President Donald Trump said the US was going to be hitting Iran "very hard over the next week," shortly after issuing a partial 30-day waiver for purchases ‌of sanctioned Russian oil, hoping to ease prices fuelled by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Earlier, Trump said on social media that he viewed it "a great honour" to be killing Iran's rulers, calling them "deranged scumbags."

While Mojtaba Khamanei has not appeared since being named supreme leader, other Islamic republic officials walked in the open in Tehran with pro-government demonstrators who waved flags and brandished banners reading "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

Iran's state media said at least one woman was killed when blasts hit an area near the demonstration.

"These attacks are out of fear, out of desperation," said Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, who attended the rally to mark Quds Day, the last Friday of Ramadan and a day of support for the Palestinian cause. "It's clear that it (the enemy) has failed," said Larijani in a speech broadcast on state TV.

President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and security chief Ali Larijani all appeared in videos verified by ‌Reuters openly attending the rally in a gesture of defiance, despite an assertion by Peter Hegseth that the leadership were "cowering" underground.

"People are not afraid of these attacks. As you can see, people have come out in this rain, under these hardships," judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said at the march.

Pezeshkian said the United States and Israel are seeking to break his country apart in their war against the Islamic republic.

"America and the Zionist regime pursue sinister intentions and goals to weaken and cause Iran and major Islamic countries to disintegrate," he said.

Shortly afterwards, state television said Iran had launched a fresh salvo of missiles at Israel. Explosions were later heard on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, but Israeli paramedics reported no casualties.

US offers $10m reward for info on top Iranian leaderstttt

 The US State Department offered a $10 million reward on Friday for information about Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei and other top officials.

Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni and Minister of Intelligence and Security Esmail Khatib were among the 10 individuals on the State Department list.

"These individuals command and direct various elements of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which plans, organizes and executes terrorism around the world," the State Department said. It urged tipsters to send information via Tor or Signal and said "your information could make you eligible for relocation and a reward."

The State Department's "Rewards for Justice" program offers cash for intelligence leading to the capture or prosecution of wanted individuals. Mojtaba Khamenei's father Ali Khamenei was killed in a bombing on February 28 at the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Earlier, a strike on the Israeli town of Zarzir wounded around 60 people, according to police, with AFP images showing burnt-out vehicles and craters in the ground.

On Friday, the White House and Pentagon lashed out at CNN for a report suggesting that Washington had underestimated Iran's ability to disrupt oil traffic through the strait. "The Pentagon has been planning for Iran's desperate and reckless closure of the Strait of Hormuz for DECADES," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X.

Iranians speaking to AFP under cover of anonymity have described a grim picture of cities in ruins and cash running short.

"Bread is now rationed. The population is extremely tense and outraged," one 30-year-old woman in Kermanshah, western Iran, told AFP.

Another woman in the city said "countless" people from Tehran had come to seek refuge from the airstrikes, adding to demand for food and scarce medicine, with prices "nearly doubling." "As a result, locals face serious shortfalls... the situation is extremely tough," she said.

Sri Lanka on Friday repatriated the remains of 84 Iranian sailors who perished when their frigate was sunk nine days ago by a US submarine, local officials said. The seamen were killed when the IRIS Dena was torpedoed on March 4 just off the coast of Sri Lanka, in an incident that extended the Middle East war to the Indian Ocean.

An Airbus A340 chartered by Iran "left a short while ago carrying the remains of the sailors," an airport official at Mattala International Airport in the island's south told AFP by telephone. "The departure was delayed because 84 sealed boxes had to be loaded," added the official who requested anonymity. The destination of the flight was not disclosed.

Agence France-Presse