Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is in critical condition and is being kept alive with the help of breathing machines.
The Sun reports that the 56-year-old was seriously injured during an airstrike that also killed his father, former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as his wife and 8-year-old son.
Sources at Sina University Hospital in Tehran indicate that Khamenei is in a coma, with a severely injured leg and possible injuries to his liver and stomach, and his survival depends entirely on life support equipment.
Although Mojtaba Khamenei is a symbolic figure, Iran is practically run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which continues to carry out drone and missile attacks in the region. American and Israeli diplomatic sources believe that he is incapable of making day-to-day decisions and that the state is operating automatically according to the plan created by the late leader.
In a statement read by a state-run journalist, Khamenei vowed revenge for his father's death and protection of Iran's "martyrs", threatening that "rivers will flow with blood".
He also declared that the Strait of Hormuz would be kept closed, indirectly threatening energy routes and international markets.
