Milwaukee's Iranian community celebrates death of Iran's supreme leader Khamanei

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- It was a scene of jubilation along the lakefront Sunday, March 1, as Milwaukee's Iranian community gathered to celebrate the US-Israeli strikes and the death of Ayatollah Khamanei. 

There was dancing to Iranian music and signs in support of a free Iran. 

Celebrators can be seen waving the American, Israeli and the 'Lion and Sun' flag. The flag flown before the Islamic Republic took over in the 1970s. 

CBS 58 spoke with one Iranian woman whose studying at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, she shared her hope for a new government to bring freedom to her country. 

"I was shaking with happy tears. I really couldn't believe I would be alive to see him gone because for half a century we were under his oppression. I really didn't have any idea that this could end any way," Parya Payami, PHD student at UWM. 

Payami says her whole family lives back in Iran, she hasn't been able to reach them as the government has shut off internet access across the country. 

She isn't worried for her family thought, saying the surgical nature of the strikes should keep them out of harm's way.