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At least 22 people dead after pro-Iran protests in Pakistan and Iraq
US government buildings in Karachi and Baghdad targeted by crowds after killing of Ayatollah Ali KhameneiAt least 22 people are dead following pro-Iran demonstrations in Pakistan that have seen hundreds of people march on the US consulate in Karachi. Security forces in Iraq have also fired teargas at protesters who tried to storm the US embassy in Baghdad.As anger boiled over after US-Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a crowd of demonstrators in Karachi chanted against the offensive before entering the reception hall of the consulate building and lighting a small fire. Continue reading...
[Protesters flee from the police]
Protesters flee from the police during clashes outside the US consulate building in Karachi on Sunday. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters
Protesters flee from the police during clashes outside the US consulate building in Karachi on Sunday. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters
At least 22 people dead after pro-Iran protests in Pakistan and Iraq
US government buildings in Karachi and Baghdad targeted by crowds after killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
US-Israel war on Iran – latest updates
At least 22 people are dead following pro-Iran demonstrations in Pakistan in which hundreds of people marched on the US consulate in Karachi. Security forces in Iraq have also fired teargas at protesters who tried to storm the US embassy in Baghdad.
As anger boiled over after US-Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a crowd of demonstrators in Karachi chanted against the offensive before entering the reception hall of the consulate building and lighting a small fire.
A video posted on social media showed a man yelling: “The death of the leader has been avenged.”
Ten people were reported dead after security forces opened fire, with more than 30 others injured, according to a local medical official.
Violence arising from protests elsewhere in Pakistan left 10 people dead in Gilgit-Baltistan and two dead in the capital, Islamabad.
[Ayatollah Ali Khamenei obituary
Read more](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/01/ayatollah-ali-khameini-obituary)
In Iraq, security forces fired teargas after hundreds of pro-Iran protesters waving flags and throwing stones tried to storm Baghdad’s Green Zone, which houses the US embassy. In recent days, US-Israeli strikes have targeted Iran-backed armed groups in the country, leading to fatalities.
The killing of Khamenei has shaken the Middle East and the wider Islamic world. The 86-year-old Shia Islam cleric was Iran’s head of state for 36 years and oversaw the security policy that created a network of Iranian-backed militias across the region.
Iranians around the world react to Khamenei's death – video
Iran-aligned groups, such as Hamas, the Houthis, Iraqi militias and Hezbollah all issued statements of condolences and solidarity with Khamenei, who they praised as a mujahid – a religious warrior – and a martyr.
“[Khamenei] was leading the march of jihad and resistance against the tyrannical and oppressive American and Israeli forces, enemies of religion and humanity,” the secretary general of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said in a statement.
Under Khamenei, Iran trained, equipped and invested in groups such as Hezbollah to create what it labelled an “axis of resistance” in the Middle East. Such groups worked for years to support Iran’s goals in the region and constituted an anti-US-Israeli bulwark.
In Lebanon, tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters and Shia Muslims came out to the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday to mourn Khamenei, waving Hezbollah and Iranian flags and carrying pictures of the late Iranian leader.
In Sanaa, Yemen, pro-Houthi media boasted of a “million-person march” in support of Iran and commemoration of Khamenei.
[A man prepares to throw a smoke grenade]
Protesters near the entrance to the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday. Photograph: Ahmed Saad/Reuters
Khamenei’s death is a major blow to an axis of resistance already severely weakened by Israel over the last two-and-a-half-years. It is also another symbolic wound to many Shia Muslims less than 18 months after the death of Hassan Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah until he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2024.
Both Khamenei and Nasrallah were seen as major figures of resistance to western oppression.
One Lebanese woman from the southern suburbs of Beirut said: “After the death of Nasrallah, we’re not surprised at anything any more. It’s over. Israel can kill whoever they want to, it seems.”
Not all mourned the loss of the Iranian leader, however.
In Syria, where Iran was the greatest patron of Bashar al-Assad’s totalitarian regime until it was overthrown in 2024, people took to the streets on hearing the news. Some honked their car horns in celebration while others sang revolutionary slogans. When a handball match was interrupted to break the news, the spectators and players cheered.
In Lebanon, opponents of Hezbollah celebrated Khamenei’s death in private, wary of provoking the armed group’s supporters.
At government level, meanwhile, the reaction across the Middle East has been more muted, with most foreign ministries failing to comment at all on the death of Khamenei, despite the extraordinary nature of a sitting head of state being assassinated by a foreign country.
The transcription of a call between the foreign ministers of Oman and Iran on Sunday made no mention of Khamenei’s killing.
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