There are reports of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei being killed in a major attack by Israel and the United States. State media reported that the 86-year-old was killed in an airstrike targeting his compound in downtown Tehran. Satellite photos from Airbus showed the site heavily bombed. If the reports are true, then this throws the future of the Islamic Republic into doubt and raises the risk of regional instability.
US President Donald Trump announced the death hours earlier, saying it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country.
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,” state TV said.
Iran's Cabinet warned that this “great crime will never go unanswered."
Iranians initially cheered from rooftops and their homes in Tehran, Iran's capital, when rumors first started to spread late Saturday of Khamenei's death.
“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.
As reports trickled out about the death, eyewitnesses in Tehran told the media that some residents were rejoicing, blowing whistles and letting out ululations. Iran, which responded to the strikes with its own counterassault, warned of retribution.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran's National Security Council, said Saturday that Israel and America will “regret their actions.”
“The brave soldiers and the great nation of Iran will deliver an unforgettable lesson to the hellish international oppressors,” Larijani posted on X.
The joint US-Israel operation, which officials say was planned for months, took place 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.
Meanwhile, Israel, for its part, said it had killed the commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the country's defense minister, as well as the secretary of the Iranian Security Council, a close adviser to Khamenei.
Tensions have soared in recent weeks as the Trump administration built up the largest force of American warships and aircraft in the Middle East in decades. The president insisted he wanted a deal to constrain Iran's nuclear program while the country struggled with growing dissent following nationwide protests.
Iran responded to the latest strikes by launching missiles and drones toward Israel and targeting US military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar. The Israeli military said Iran fired dozens of missiles at Israel, with many intercepted. The Magen David Adom rescue service said Saturday night that a woman in the Tel Aviv area died after being wounded in an Iranian missile attack.
Iran's state news agency IRNA said at least 15 people were killed in the southwest, quoting the governor of the Lamerd region, Ali Alizadeh, as saying a sports hall, two residential areas, and a hall near a school were hit.
Israel said the operation had been planned for months with the United States. Air Force pilots struck “hundreds of targets across Iran,” Israeli military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said in a statement.
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