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- Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran's slain leader, is favored to succeed him.
- Iran's Assembly of Experts will soon announce the new leader, sources say.
- U.S. and Israeli forces continue assaults on Iran amid escalating regional tensions.
DUBAI — Mojtaba Khamenei, the powerful son of Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is alive and favored to emerge as his father's successor, two Iranian sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
As new explosions rang out in Tehran, plans were in doubt for a funeral for the elder Khamenei, 86, killed by Israeli forces on Saturday in the first assassination of a nation's top ruler by airstrike. His body had been scheduled to lie in state in a vast Tehran mosque from Wednesday evening but state media reported the farewell ceremony was postponed.
The United States and Israel pressed on with their round-the-clock assaults on Iran on Wednesday in a campaign that the top U.S. commander said was "ahead of the game plan."
A fall in global markets turned into a rout in Asia, including a record-breaking crash in Seoul, as some investors were unconvinced by President Donald Trump's assurances that he would quickly reopen the world's most important shipping corridor and release blockaded Middle East oil and gas.
European markets later stabilized and turned higher after two days of sharp losses, on hopes that the war might end soon. Some traders said the improved sentiment followed a New York Times report that Iranian intelligence had reached out to the CIA early in the war about a path toward ending it.
The report said officials in Washington were skeptical of an "off-ramp" for now, while Trump said on Tuesday that Iranians wanted talks, but it was "too late."
Mojtaba Khamenei not in Tehran when father killed
The two Iranian sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was not in Tehran during the strike that destroyed the leader's compound and also killed the elder Khamenei's wife, another son and a number of senior military and leadership figures.
Iran said the Assembly of Experts that will select the new leader will announce its decision soon, only the second time it has done so since the Islamic Republic's founding in 1979.
Assembly member Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told state TV the candidates had already been identified but did not name them.
Israel said it would hunt down whoever was chosen.
"Every leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime to continue and lead the plan to destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people — will be an unequivocal target for elimination," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. "It does not matter what his name is or the place where he hides."
Other candidates for supreme leader include Hassan Khomeini, grandson of Islamic Republic's founder and a champion of the reformist faction sidelined in recent decades.
But the clear favorite appears to be Mojtaba Khamenei, who amassed power under his father as a senior figure in the security forces and the vast business empire they control. Choosing him would send a signal that hardliners were still firmly in charge.
Some Iranians have openly celebrated the death of the supreme leader, whose security forces killed thousands of anti-government demonstrators only weeks ago in the biggest domestic unrest since the era of the revolution.
But Iranians angry with the government said there was unlikely to be much sign of protest while bombs are falling.
"We have nowhere to go to protect ourselves from strikes, how can we protest?" Farah, 45, said by phone from Tehran, adding that the security forces "are everywhere. They will kill us. I hate this regime, but first I have to think about the safety of my two children."
Iranian warship sinks near Sri Lanka
The U.S. says it has effectively sunk the entire Iranian navy. Sri Lanka said it rescued 32 people on Wednesday from an Iranian warship that sank off its coast, with some bodies recovered at sea.
Admiral Brad Cooper, the overall commander of the U.S. campaign as head of the military's Central Command, said 50,000 troops, 200 jets and two aircraft carriers were engaged in "24/7 strikes into Iran from seabed to space and cyberspace," with more assets on the way.
"My overall operational assessment is that we are ahead of our game plan," he said. "In simple terms, we're focused on shooting things that can shoot us."
Israel said its forces hit targets across Iran for a fifth day. An Israeli F-35 fighter jet shot down an Iranian Yak-130 over Tehran, believed to be the first time the new-generation F-35 has downed a manned aircraft in combat.
The campaign has also expanded to Lebanon, where Israel has bombed Beirut and vowed to uproot the Iran-backed group Hezbollah after it launched strikes into Israel.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday its ground forces were advancing in southern Lebanon and ordered residents to evacuate the entire swathe of territory south of the Litani River.
Turkey said an Iranian missile was shot down over its airspace, the first time the NATO member was drawn into the conflict.
In Israel, air-raid sirens sounded warnings and buildings shook as Iranian missiles were intercepted.
Scores of ships have halted in the Gulf since Iran said it was closing the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas are shipped along its coast. Qatar, one of the world's main liquefied natural gas producers, has shut production. Iraq has scaled back oil output.
The Strait is under the "full control" of Iran's navy, the Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday, warning vessels not to transit the waterway, the semi-official Fars news agency said.
Trump said the U.S. Navy could begin escorting oil tankers through the Strait if necessary. But shipowners and analysts are uncertain that would be enough to stop rising prices.
