As the US weighs joining Israel’s assault on Iran, questions are mounting over whether such an intervention could trigger regime change in Tehran – an outcome that risks splintering the country and sending shockwaves across the region.

Iran’s supreme leader crushed internal threats during more than three decades in power. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei entrenched the system of rule by Shiite Muslim clerics.

Mohammed Said Izadi, one of the commanders Israel said it killed, was one of the few people who knew in advance about Hamas’s plan to launch a surprise attack on Israel, The New York Times has reported.