An anchor of Iran’s state-run broadcaster broke down on live television while announcing the “martyrdom” of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after a major attack launched by Israel and the United States.
The network reported that Khamenei was killed in what Iranian authorities characterized as an assassination.
The visibly emotional anchor, Maryam Azarchehr, struggled to maintain composure while delivering the news. Referring to Khamenei as the “Leader of the Islamic Revolution,” she warned that “revenge was coming soon”.
An emotional Azarchehr said, “Revenge is coming. Revenge is coming soon. They will see what they have done.”
The clip went viral almost immediately.
Azarchehr also paid an emotional tribute to Khamenei, praising his leadership and ideological stance. “He stood for the children in Palestine. He stood for the children in Lebanon. Today, those mourning him will be the orphans across the world,” she said.
She concluded with a reverent historical comparison, “Imam Khamenei will go down in history as did Imam Ali.”
‘Will uproot criminal regimes of US & Israel’
According to Press TV, Iran’s government said that the “crime of assassination of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution will not go unpunished,” asserting that the “pure blood of the martyred Leader will uproot the criminal regimes of the US and Israel.”
Fars agency news said Khamenei was killed at his office while “performing his assigned duties” in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The Iranian TV network also aired visuals from the Imam Hussein Shrine in Karbala, where pilgrims were seen grieving the death of Khamenei. In Tehran, people gathered at Enghelab Square to mourn, with crowds holding portraits and chanting slogans, the broadcaster reported.
The Iranian government has declared 40 days of public mourning in the wake of Khamenei’s killing and seven days of public holidays.
Who was Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?
In 1989, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei became Iran’s supreme leader after the death of Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Khamenei played an important role in the movement that overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the 1979 revolution.
The 86-year-old Khamenei was Iran’s commander-in-chief, with the final say on all policy and religious matters. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the force that safeguards the Islamic Republic, answers directly to him.
Khamenei has been in charge during previous crackdowns on protesters in Iran. He recently said Iran was ready to retaliate against any American attack.
One of the first US-Israel joint strikes on Saturday hit near Khamenei’s offices. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency reported the 86-year-old’s death on Sunday, hours after Trump said Khamenei was killed in a joint American-Israeli operation.
His death is being deemed as the Martyrdom of the Guardian by state media, framing it “not as a defeat, but as a final sacrifice for the sovereignty of the nation”.
