In the wake of reported US-Israeli strikes on Tehran and the death of Iran's Supreme Leader, violent protests have left at least 10 dead at the US Consulate in Pakistan, alongside drone strikes on an Omani port.
A wave of violent unrest and military escalation is sweeping across the region following reported joint US and Israeli strikes on Tehran and the widely circulated death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Multiple Persian-language media outlets and Telegram channels are reporting severe regional fallout, including a deadly siege at the US Consulate in Pakistan and drone attacks in Oman.
In Pakistan, massive protests erupted in Karachi and Lahore. According to the state-aligned فارس بینالملل و سیاست خارجی, angry Pakistani protesters attacked the US consulate in Karachi in response to American aggression and the martyrdom of the Supreme Leader. The hardline کانال اخبار سپاه پاسداران 🏴, which closely tracks with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, shared new images of the furious protesters and claimed the consulate was set on fire. Similarly, the Houthi-aligned گروه انصارالله یمن reported that Pakistani citizens burned down the consulate.
The confrontation in Karachi quickly turned deadly. Breaking news channel خبرفوری جنگ🚨اخبارفوری امریکا فوری reported that at least 10 Pakistanis were killed after being met with a barrage of gunfire outside the consulate. Saudi-owned العربیه فارسی, which maintains an editorial stance critical of the Iranian regime, noted that the fatalities occurred during clashes between protesters and police. Offering a staunchly anti-regime perspective, اِپُک تایمز فارسی stated that a mob consisting of supporters of the Islamic Republic stormed the facility and caused damages after the killing of Ali Khamenei. The informal channel کافه سیاست 🖤 noted the Karachi attack with the mocking commentary that they took Khamenei's revenge 😅.
Simultaneously, multiple channels reported direct military action inside Iran. The IRGC-aligned news channel described a brutal American and Israeli attack on an area near Tehran's Azadi Tower, while the breaking news channel خبرفوری جنگ claimed that Israel had published video footage of the strikes on the Iranian capital.
The unrest has also spilled into the Arabian Peninsula. Mainstream Iranian news aggregator آخرین خبر reported a drone attack on American headquarters in Oman. Citing the Omani news agency and security sources, the channel specified that two drones targeted the commercial port of Duqm. Consequently, the US Embassy in Oman has ordered its staff and citizens to shelter in place wherever they can.
The source material reflects deeply polarized framing of the unfolding events. Iranian state-aligned and proxy-aligned channels utilize deeply reverent terminology for Khamenei's death and highly emotive, aggressive language for the US and Israeli military actions. In contrast, opposition, dissident, and Saudi-aligned channels use starkly neutral or explicitly mocking phrasing. The exact timeline of whether Khamenei's death preceded or resulted from the Tehran strikes is somewhat conflated across the rapid-fire Telegram updates, though the protests are universally cited as a direct reaction to his death.