DONALD TRUMP plunged the Middle East into war over the weekend, joining Israel in launching massive aerial bombardment of Iran.

Iran confirmed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed as it launched retaliatory missile strikes against US military bases in Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as against Israel.

Over 200 Iranians are already confirmed killed, the majority children slain by an Israeli strike on a girls’ primary school in Minab, which killed 148, mainly pupils but also some parents and staff.

At least nine Israelis were killed when an Iranian missile struck the town of Beit Shemesh today, and three US soldiers had been confirmed killed by Iranian military action when the Morning Star went to press.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps also claimed to have fired four ballistic missiles at the US aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln, though it was unclear if these came near to striking their target. It is the first anti-ship missile attack on a US aircraft carrier by a state actor in history.

The US and Israel said they were continuing intense bombing of Iranian cities through today, with President Trump saying “uninterrupted” bombing would continue all week.

He has called on Iranians to rise up and overthrow their government now Khamenei is dead, though killing Iran’s leader was condemned as a gross violation of international law by countries around the world, with China slamming it for “trampling on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and basic norms in international relations.”

In Britain, hundreds joined an emergency rally on Saturday in Parliament Square to condemn Mr Trump’s war.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that Britain had not taken any part in the attacks on Iran, but that British aircraft were “in the sky to defend our people, our interests and our allies,” including by shooting down Iranian projectiles launched at US and Israeli targets in the region.

He also issued a joint statement with the heads of the French and German governments which condemned Iran for retaliating to the attacks on it, and called for it to return to the negotiating table, though Iran was negotiating over its civil nuclear power programme when the US and Israel launched their attack.

Defence Secretary John Healey said that the RAF Akrotiri base on Cyprus, from which the US has launched missions before, had been targeted by Iranian missiles.

At the emergency rally Stop the War Coalition national officer John Rees told the Morning Star that only public pressure would keep Britain out of the criminal war.

“Keir Starmer is too afraid to join in full-throatedly with the American-Israeli attack because of the pressure of the Palestine movement in this country, but he’s also too frightened to break from the security architecture of the so-called special relationship and oppose [Donald Trump], so we’ve got to make sure we force the government to steer clear of this inflammatory act of aggression by the United States and Israel.”

Noting that Mr Trump claimed to have obliterated Iran’s nuclear programme last year — a claim he repeated in his State of the Union address last week — he said “one of the dangers in the situation is that if the [Iranian] regime doesn’t fall Trump is going to look like he’s either lost or done no more than he did last time.

“So the roots of regime change and further escalation are written into the way Trump has framed this.”

Stop the War and CND have called a demonstration against the war for Saturday March 7.

Left politicians condemned the aggression — with Jeremy Corbyn saying the strikes on Iran were “illegal, unprovoked and unjustifiable.

“Peace and diplomacy was possible. Instead, Israel and the United States chose war. This is the behaviour of rogue states.”

Green leader Zack Polanski also slammed an “illegal, unprovoked and brutal attack,” demanding: “The UK must end our cosy relationship with the USA and our ongoing support for Israel.”

Twelve British trade unions issued a joint statement condemning the “illegal war on Iran.

“Reports of Iranian civilian casualties, including students and schoolchildren, are deeply disturbing and require urgent, independent investigation … we oppose any direct or indirect participation by the UK in this conflict,” the unions — including Aegis, the BFAWU, Equity, FBU, NEU, PCS, POA, RMT, TSSA and UCU — as well as the General Federation of Trade Unions, said.

“This needs to stop now before any more Iranian lives are lost,” TSSA leader Maryam Eslamdoust told the Morning Star, while the RMT’s Eddie Dempsey decried a “disaster for civilians in the region.”

PCS union general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “Our government must not support US-led military aggression.

“The world stands at the precipice of war, we must do all we can as a movement to demand peace.”

Mr Trump was also criticised in the United States, with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemning the “illegal war of aggression” against Iran.

“Bombing cities, killing civilians, opening up a new theatre of war — Americans do not want this. Americans do not want another war in pursuit of regime change,” he declared.