Yahoo! News – Iran’s senior leadership marched through the streets of Tehran in daylight on Friday, defying American and Israeli bombs as explosions struck buildings along their route.
Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, strolled through the city centre without visible bodyguards, riding at times on the back of a motorbike and posing for selfies during the Quds Day rally.
Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, Ahmadreza Radan, the chief of police, and Mohammad Eslami, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, joined the march.
Notably absent from the public demonstrations were Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, and senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders. The funeral for Mohammad Pakpour, the IRGC’s former chief, was held during the rallies.
Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, the judiciary chief, was speaking to state television on Enghelab Street when an explosion hit a nearby building.
“We stand with the people and alongside the people until the last breath against arrogance and pharaoh-like powers,” Mr Mohseni-Ejei told reporters immediately after the blast, instructing his bodyguards: “We continue on our path. Nothing has happened.”
Witnesses reported hearing massive explosions near Fatemi Street and the interior ministry building, with additional strikes in northern and western Tehran.
State media reported that a woman was killed by shrapnel while holding an Iranian flag just metres from where the country’s judiciary chief was giving a television interview.
A photograph circulated by Iranian state media showed a police officer holding the woman’s blood-stained flag.
Tasnim reported the flag “was in the hands of this compatriot woman when shrapnel struck and became coloured with her blood”.
The Friday rallies came hours after strikes on Tehran that residents said were among the most intense of the war.
The strikes occurred at approximately 5.26am local time, jolting residents from sleep across the city of more than 10 million people.
“Tehran shook in such a way that at first I jumped from sleep thinking an earthquake had come,” another resident said. “When I became a bit more alert, I remembered it’s war.”
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a US-based monitoring group, released updated casualty figures showing 1,286 civilian deaths, including at least 200 children.
In a combative Pentagon briefing, Mr Hegseth said that Tehran’s leaders were “barely communicating, let alone co-ordinating… they are confused, and we know it.”
Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, was established by Iran’s revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1979 as a day of solidarity with Palestinians.
The annual rallies typically feature anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric and have served as a demonstration of the Islamic Republic’s ability to mobilise supporters.
This year’s rallies took on additional significance as a test of whether the government could turn out crowds despite nearly two weeks of sustained aerial bombardment.