Zeinab Mirkhayali was her family’s pride and joy. At nine-years-old she became a Haafizah after she had memorised the Quran.
But her life was cut short on Saturday morning when an Israeli-American missile reduced her girls’ school to rubble.
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Zeinab, a fourth grader, was among over 180 girls killed at Shajareh Tayyiba girls’ elementary school in Minab, in southern Iran, when it was bombed in the first few hours of the war launched by the U.S. and Israel on Iran.
Her father, Seyyed Ibrahim Mirkhayali, a municipal employee from Bandar Abbas, told Drop site:
“I was at work when my wife called and told me that the girls’ primary school in Minab had been bombed. I could not process what I was hearing at first. Then I left immediately and drove to the school”.
When he arrived he found a large crowd of parents standing outside as a search and rescue was under way.
Some were crying. Others stood in heavy silence.
“We stayed until her body was brought out from under the rubble,” he said. Her body was largely intact. “But her head was crushed by falling stones from the building. That is what killed her.”
Mirkhayali told Drop Site Zeinab had been preparing to compete in a Quran recitation competition in Tehran in two months.
“I had a great dream for my daughter. She was hardworking and outstanding, and she had memorized the book of God. Her participation in the competition was a source of pride for all of us. My dream died with her,” he told Drop Site.
Meanwhile, The Iranian government said on Sunday that US-Israeli attacks on Iran had killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation’s supreme leader.
US President Donald Trump had earlier announced Khamenei’s death hours earlier and called on Iranians to take control of their government. The Iranian state news agency confirmed on Sunday another wave of attacks on the country as the war entered its second day.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a powerful institution that answers to the supreme leader — vowed to punish US and Israeli aggression.
Iran’s president, the head of the judiciary and a jurist of the Guardian Council will be in charge during the transition period following the death, the Iranian state news agency said on Sunday.
In retaliation, Iran has fired ballistic missiles at Israel where the authorities reported one death. The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait — all of which host U.S. military bases — said they had come under attack, as did Jordan. Falling debris from an Iranian ballistic missile attack killed at least one person in the Emirates, according to its government.
The fighting shut down shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Chaos is expected in the oil market as the war progresses and spreads into the entire gulf region.