Iran state media says wife of late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is alive

The reports emerge a day after Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said that his country will avenge the blood of its martyrs, ⁠keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and attack US bases.

Iranian state media says Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, wife of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is alive. Reports of her death were incorrect.

The reports emerged a day after Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said that his country will avenge the blood of its martyrs, ⁠keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and attack US bases. In the ‌defiant address, Khamenei said the United States ​must close all its bases in the region. The strait, which runs past Iran's coast and supplies a fifth of the world's oil, should remain shut to put pressure on the enemy, he said.

Two tankers were ablaze in an Iraqi port on Thursday after a hit by suspected Iranian explosive-laden boats, a step-up in attacks that have cut off oil from ​the Middle East and defied U.S. President Donald ⁠Trump's claim to have won the war he launched two weeks ago.

Images verified by Reuters as having been filmed from the shore of the port of Basra showed ships engulfed in massive orange fireballs that lit up the night sky, after the attacks, which Iraqi authorities blamed on Iranian boats. At least one crew ⁠member was killed.

With Reuters inputs