Middle East Crisis Reactions to Israel-Iran

Report: Unknown elite force protects threatened Khamenei

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is protected by an elite force so secret that many top Iranian officials in Iran's Revolutionary Guard did not even know it existed, according to information to The Telegraph.

A source tells the British newspaper that Khamenei is not hiding in a bunker, but that it is in a secret location and that they want to minimize the risk of infiltration.

- His life is in danger.

Reuters had information early this week that Israel wanted to kill Khamenei but was stopped by Donald Trump.

Planes that can carry the US "bunker breaker" are being moved

Several US bombers of the B-2 model have taken off from an air base in Missouri and are flying westward over the Pacific Ocean, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The plane could carry the US's powerful "bunker breakers" that experts say are needed to knock out the Iranian nuclear facility at Fordow. The newspaper writes that the move is a sign that Trump is preparing for a possible attack, but a source emphasizes that no such order has been given.

Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times write that a likely destination is the US Pacific island of Guam, where the US has strategically important air bases. A source tells Reuters that this is the case.

The White House has not officially commented.

Eightfold increase: US moves planes to the Middle East

More and more US military planes are flying towards the Middle East, Sky News reports, which has analyzed the traffic.

This indicates that the country is building up "war capabilities that were not previously available in the region," Forbes McKenzie, founder of the security company McKenzie Intelligence, told the newspaper.

Between Monday and Thursday, at least 52 US planes crossed the Mediterranean en route to the Middle East. At least 25 of these stopped in Cyprus – an eightfold increase compared to the previous week.

President Donald Trump has said he will announce whether the United States will attack Iran within two weeks. Several analysts and critics have pointed out that this could be a pretext to buy time to prepare for an attack that has already been decided to carry out.

Ayatollah fears for his life in a bunker – has reportedly appointed his successor

Fearing death, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has sought refuge from Israeli bombs in a bunker where he has named three candidates to take over his post if he were to be killed in an Israeli attack. This is reported by Iranian government sources for the New York Times.

Contrary to what many have believed, he has not named his own son Mojtaba Khamenei as his possible successor, but has instead pointed to three other high-ranking religious leaders. Khamenei is also reported to have appointed successors for several of the country's military leaders.

According to officials, the Islamist regime leader is so afraid that he has not left his bunker in recent days.

The New York Times writes that the information is “speaks of the precarious situation he and his three-decade-long rule find themselves in.”