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Iranians across the country could be seen and heard celebrating the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after coordinated Israeli strikes overnight.
In one video, Iranians near Karaj, Iran, outside the capital of Tehran, took to the streets, honked their horns and cheered.
In social media videos, Iranians in Tehran cheered from their apartments, playing loud music and setting off fireworks as the news spread.
In Fuladshahr, people packed the streets, waving their arms in the air, whistling, honking and cheering over the news.
In Borazjan, Iran, celebrants chanted and, in Mamasani, they waved flags and danced.
People celebrate in Madrid, Spain. (Carlos Lujan/Europa Press via Getty Images)
People also celebrated in the Iranian cities of Shiraz and Abadan, “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,” according to Lisa Daftari, editor at The Foreign Desk.
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Iranian people also cheered the news in other parts of the world, such as Madrid, London, Berlin, Armenia and the United States.
People celebrated the death of Khamenei on Saturday in Berlin. (Christophe Gateau/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
“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 Digital.
“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.”
A woman holds up an Iranian flag as people celebrate the death of Khamenei in Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
In Los Angeles, home to the largest Iranian community in the U.S., hundreds came out to wave Iranian and American flags on Saturday.
Some people also held signs bearing expressions such as, “Make Iran Great Again.”
“I love America. I love everything about this country,” Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad told Saturday.
“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.
A family celebrates while watching in Vienna, Va. (Reuters/Nathan Howard)
“Thank you, President Trump, for taking decisive action. This is how true leadership looks like.”
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Los Angeles and other U.S. cities, like Boston; Washington, D.C.; and New York City held competing anti-war protests, as did cities in Europe.
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