ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Kurdistan Region's Erbil was targeted on Sunday for a second consecutive day, as Iran responds to a US-Israeli campaign that killed its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a day earlier.

Several loud booms were heard on Sunday evening near Erbil International Airport, followed by plumes of smoke in the sky, as air defense systems intercepted the projectiles. The airport houses US troops stationed in Erbil, and has been the target of repeated Iranian strikes since the breakout of violence.

The extent of damage from the explosions has yet to be determined as of the time of writing this article.

Three initial explosions were followed by a series of loud booms near the site. Erbil, which houses the largest US Consulate as well as American troops, is often a target of Iranian retaliation when tensions between Iran and the US escalate, as it's one of the closest targets to Tehran.

The sites were also struck several times on Saturday.

The US and Israel on Saturday morning launched a large-scale military offensive across Iran. The strikes have killed Khamenei, in addition to several other top Iranian officials. The offensive came following months of escalating tensions between the two sides. 

In addition to Erbil, Iran has retaliated with missile and drone bombardments targeting US military bases across several Middle Eastern countries, giving rise to myriad diplomatic protests by regional states on whose territory the US installations were bombed.

Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani said Sunday that the United States and Israel have “set the heart of the Iranian nation ablaze,” after Khamenei was killed, vowing that Tehran will strike its enemies “with a force never seen before.”

On Sunday, the US army announced that three service members had been killed and five others were seriously wounded in the recent escalations with Iran. 

Khamenei, 86, from Mashhad, was Iran’s highest political and religious authority for nearly 37 years, marking the longest-serving leader since the Islamic Revolution.
 
He was a leading opponent of the US and Israel, advancing the Islamic Republic’s ideology by supporting regional proxies against both countries, and calling for their elimination.