Iranians across the country were seen and heard celebrating [1] the reported death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following coordinated Israeli strikes overnight.
Videos circulating on social media showed scenes of jubilation in multiple cities.
Near Karaj, Iran, outside the capital of Tehran, people took to the streets, honking their horns and cheering.
In Tehran, residents leaned out from apartment balconies, playing loud music and setting off fireworks as word of the strikes spread.
In Fuladshahr, crowds packed the streets, waving their arms, whistling, honking and cheering. In Borazjan, celebrants chanted, while in Mamasani, people waved flags and danced.
Public celebrations were also reported in Shiraz and Abadan. Lisa Daftari, editor at The Foreign Desk, described the scenes in those cities, stating they were locations “where the people are out on the streets till the wee hours of the night in celebration of an Iran that is on the brink of finding its freedom after almost five decades.”
The celebrations extended beyond Iran’s borders. Iranian communities in Madrid, London, Berlin, Armenia and the United States also gathered in public to mark the news.
“Iranian people all over the world, from Los Angeles to Tehran, are on the streets celebrating [in] sheer jubilation over the dawn of a new and free Iran,” Daftari told Fox News Digital.
She added, “Iranians poured onto the streets cheering, clapping, waving the lion and sun flag, dancing openly and singing the old national anthem. It’s hard to imagine a people so starved for freedom, so desperate for justice, that they are cheering military strikes on their own soil as the price of liberation.”
In Los Angeles, which is home to the largest Iranian community in the United States, hundreds gathered Saturday waving Iranian and American flags.
Some attendees carried signs with phrases such as, “Make Iran Great Again.”
Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad spoke with Fox News on Saturday about the reaction among expatriates and Iranians at home.
“I love America. I love everything about this country,” Alinejad said.
“I grew up in a country where I was brainwashed to say, ‘Death to America,’ the same country — how ironic — the same country that saved my life three times and is now helping my people in Iran. They’re celebrating. They’re celebrating out of joy.”
She also said, “Thank you, President Trump, for taking decisive action. This is how true leadership looks like.”
At the same time, competing anti-war protests were held in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities, including Boston, Washington, D.C., and New York City. Similar demonstrations were reported in several European cities.
The contrasting scenes — public celebration among some Iranians and protest activity in major Western cities — followed the overnight Israeli strikes that preceded reports of Khamenei’s death.