The streets were eerily quiet elsewhere on Sunday as businesses, schools and universities shut their doors.
Opponents of the regime, who turned out in the thousands for protests that faced a brutal crackdown in January, largely stayed off the streets on Sunday, perhaps heeding advice from U.S. President Donald Trump and former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, a figurehead for some opponents of the regime, who urged them to wait and stay sheltered rather than attempt an uprising now.
“Stay alert and ready to return to the streets for the final action at the appropriate time,” Pahlavi said Saturday.
“Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside,” Trump advised as he announced the strikes. “When we are finished, take over your government.”
While there were no mass celebrations from the regime’s opponents, some still welcomed the U.S. and Israeli strikes.
Eyewitness video showed a crowd in southern Iran toppling a monument dedicated to the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenei’s predecessor.
In the coastal city of Shahsavar in northern Iran, crowds cheered and cars honked their horns in a video verified by NBC News.
“Goodbye, ‘Moosh-Ali,’” says the cameraman, using a nickname referencing Khamenei.
Even in Tehran, where protesters face being hunted down since the violent suppression of January’s demonstrations, some shouted “Long live the shah” from the rooftops, a reference to Iran’s former king who was overthrown in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution.
In footage verified by NBC News, cheers and whistles could be heard in the capital’s Pardis neighborhood after reports of Khamenei’s death began to spread.
But questions remain over what comes next, causing a quiet anticipation in the streets of Tehran, an NBC News producer on the ground said.
Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, said on Sunday that “a temporary leadership council will be formed in accordance with the constitution to carry out the duties assigned to it,” as Iran kicks off the process for choosing a successor to Khamenei.
Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., a strong supporter of the strikes, said Sunday that the U.S. would not be imposing a leader on Iran and that it was for the people to decide what happens next.
“The people will pick. As to the people: choose wisely,” he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker on Sunday, adding: “We want to be your friend. We’d like to have a good relationship with you going forward, but that is up to you now.”