The military operation against Iran entered its fourteenth day on Friday. At least four crewmen from an American air refuelling tanker that crashed in Iraq while on Operation Epic Fury duties have died, CENTCOM said.
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**Friday’s live updates below. All updates in Eastern time**
07:45 AM: Top Iranian leaders break cover
Perhaps understandably, we haven’t seen much of what remains of the top level of Iran’s government in the past two weeks. We haven’t even seen the new Supreme Leader at all since he was appointed, leading to some to call him mockingly the Cardboard Khamani.
But there was a rally in Tehran this morning and a handful of regime figures put in an appearance. Among them was Ali Larijani, head of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, Iranian nuclear boss Mohammad Eslami, Islamist jurist Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, and national police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan.
The march was for ‘Quds day’, the annual end-of-Ramadan Iranian event calling for the destruction of Israel. Quds has long been celebrated in London, too, but as reported earlier this week the protest has been banned by the government this year for the first time. Citing the high risk of unrest, anti-Israel protesters will be arrested if they attempt to march through the city.
Yet there is no law in Britain to ban a static demonstration, so the Al-Quds organisers have declared that will go ahead on Sunday. In a bid to keep a lid on things, police have used what powers they have to order the pro-and-anti-Israel protesters to either side of the River Thames.
07:30 AM: At least four dead in double Stratotanker collision
Sad news from CENTCOM this morning, who state that four of six crew of the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker that crashed in Iraq yesterday are now confirmed dead. A rescue operation is still underway in hope of finding the other two. A second aircraft that was involved in the collision was able to limp home with half a tail, it seems. Our full report is here.
For earlier Livewire updates from Thursday, please click here
