Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead, Iranian state media reported. He was 86.
After a major attack launched by Israel and the United States, state television and the state-run IRNA news agency reported Khamenei’s death, without elaborating on the cause of death.
Fars agency news said Khamenei was killed at his office while “performing his assigned duties” in the early hours of Saturday morning.
His death at his office “showed that he consistently stood among the people and at the forefront of his responsibilities, confronting what officials call global arrogance,” a state TV said.
According to Fars News, the Iranian government has declared 40 days of public mourning in the wake of Khamenei’s killing. They have also announced seven days of public holidays.
The confirmation from Iranian media comes hours after US President Donald Trump had said Khamenei was killed in a joint American-Israeli operation targeting Iran.
‘Evil’ Khamenei is dead
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote in a social media post. He warned of “heavy and pinpoint bombing” that he said would continue throughout the week and even beyond, part of a lethal assault the US has justified as necessary to disable the country’s nuclear capabilities.
The killing of Khamenei in the second Trump administration’s assault on Iran in eight months appeared certain to create a leadership vacuum, given the absence of a known successor and because the supreme leader had final say on all major policies during his decades in power.
Khamenei led Iran’s clerical establishment and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the two main centers of power in the governing theocracy.
Khamenei’s daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter killed in strike
Iranian media also reported that the daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in the US-Israeli strikes.
“After establishing contact with informed sources in the Supreme Leader’s household, the news of the martyrdom of the daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter of the Revolutionary Leader has unfortunately been confirmed,” Fars news agency and other Iranian media reported.
Massive strike reportedly targeted Iran’s command structure
Israel said targets in Iran included Revolutionary Guard command facilities, air defense systems, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields. It said that the operation aimed at dismantling Iran’s leadership hierarchy, claiming strikes targeted roughly 30 senior military and civilian figures, including:
- Khamenei’s top security adviser Ali Shamkhani
- Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammad Pakpour
- Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh
- Chief military secretary Mohammad Shirazi
- Head of military intelligence Saleh Asadi
- SPND chairman Hossein Jabal Amelian
- Former SPND chairman Reza Mozaffari-Nia
Strikes followed months of rising tensions
The joint US-Israel operation, which officials say was planned for months, took place on Saturday during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan and at the start of the Iranian workweek.
It followed stilted negotiations and warnings from Trump, who last year trumpeted his administration’s success in incapacitating the country’s nuclear program but cast the latest round as necessary to head off its potential resurgence.
About 12 hours after the attacks began, the US military reported no American casualties and minimal damage at its bases despite “hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks.”
Khamenei “was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do,” Trump said. “This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.”
(With inputs from agencies)
