New Delhi: Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ali Khamenei and the new Supreme Leader of the Islamic nation, has lost at least two family members to the strikes by Israel and the US, according to reports.
Iranian media reports say his wife, Zahra Haddad-Adel, and one of his two sons were killed in the airstrikes that began over two weeks ago over Iran's nuclear programme. He also has a daughter - three children in total.
Mojtaba Khamenei's father, Ali Khamenei, who remained Supreme Leader till the end, was the first family member to die in the war. There are also reports that Mojtaba Khamenei's mother, Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, was killed in one of the airstrikes.
So, the number of immediate family members of the new Supreme Leader killed in the war is four.
Some reports claim four more close relatives of Mojtaba Khamenei were dead. Media could not independently verify it.
Iranian media reports say the new Supreme Leader lost his sister, a nephew, a niece, and a brother-in-law.
So, the total number of dead from his family is eight. There are conflicting reports on the names of those who died in the airstrikes. Ali Khamenei had four sons and two daughters. His grandchildren who were killed could be from the family of any of his six children.
Mojtaba Khamenei's ascension has been welcomed by both China and Russia. He is known to be a hardliner. An 88-member body of clerics voted to name him the new Supreme Leader, but did not share the margin.
The hardline cleric spent years consolidating influence beyond what his title suggested by embedding in the Revolutionary Guards' command structures and looking after business networks that ran parallel to the state.
His father's death only hastened a succession that had been quietly in motion for years.
US President Donald Trump had other ideas about the process. "If he doesn't get approval from us, he's not going to last long," Trump told ABC News on Sunday. By Monday, Trump told the Times of Israel: "We'll see what happens."
Israel had threatened, ahead of the announcement, to strike whoever was chosen. It offered no follow-up.
As Supreme Leader, Mojtaba holds final authority over every organ of the Iranian regime. The position is not ceremonial at all.
The war itself showed no sign of pausing for the transition. Israel's military launched a fresh wave of strikes on central Iran on Monday and hit Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut.
The human cost also continued to accumulate. Iran's UN ambassador put the number of civilian deaths at 1,332, with thousands wounded. The US confirmed a seventh American soldier had died during treatment.
