The front pages carry images of fiery explosions as - according to the Sunday Express - "chaos erupted" across the Middle East. The world is holding its breath, the paper says, after what it describes as "devastation" in the region. "Middle East in flames" is the headline in the Sunday Mirror, while the Sun on Sunday opts for simply: "Ayatollah dead". It says that following a "missile blitz" by the US and Israel the Iranian leader's body was found in rubble at his palace in Tehran.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death "represents the gravest blow to the Iranian regime" since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In comments highlighted by the Sunday Times, US President Donald Trump says it marks "the single greatest chance" for the regime to be overthrown, urging the Iranian people to "take back their country". One student in the city of Isfahan tells the paper that the government is more afraid of protesters than the US or Israel.

But the Observer describes the strikes as "a war begun with no plan for peace" by a "dangerously reckless" president. Politico suggests the killing of the Ayatollah leaves a "power vacuum" which "plunges Iran's future into uncertainty". The website says that the armed forces "could use the opportunity to take more power", which would mean Iranians "could continue to face repression".

The London-based Iran International – which the regime has classed as a terrorist organisation – says the strikes have intensified "disarray and confusion" within the country's military. Sources tell the outlet that the Revolutionary Guard Corps is insisting on the "swift appointment" of the next supreme leader, outside the normal procedures.

As for Trump's view of Iran's future, he has spoken to the American news website, Axios - comments it says "offer the first real window into his thinking about how this ends". He tells the outlet that he can "go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days", and tell the Iranians that if they rebuild their nuclear programme he will "see them in a few years". He also says that one of his reasons for launching Operation Epic Fury was his belief that Tehran "didn't really want" to agree a deal over the programme.

The Telegraph, however, speculates that Trump may have had another motive for the strikes - saying their timing is "no coincidence". It reports that at a time when his approval ratings are at their lowest he "hopes a decisive blow against a foreign aggressor will allow the Republicans to cling to power" in the forthcoming midterms. The Times points out that he "came into power promising to end US entanglement in forever wars". It describes the strikes as his "most daring act yet", but adds that "they must succeed".

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