End of an Era as Iran Confirms Khamenei Is Dead After U.S.–Israel Strikes
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in American-Israeli strikes on Saturday morning, Iranian state media confirmed early Sunday morning, hours after US President Donald Trump declared the 86-year-old’s death in the most ambitious attack on Iran in decades.
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that US strikes would continue “uninterrupted” for the coming week or until peace is secured in Iran.
Israeli and US officials had increasingly projected confidence in the hours leading up to Trump’s remarks that the leader of the Islamic Republic had been killed in an airstrike on his compound.
An Israeli official briefing local media said the Iranian leader had been killed in an Israeli strike on his compound on Saturday morning, and a senior Israeli official told Reuters that his body had been found. Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been shown an image of his body after it was recovered from the compound in Tehran.
Iran’s state media said Khamenei was killed in his office in the early hours of Saturday, announcing a 40-day period of mourning. It added that family members of Khamenei were also killed, including his daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law.
Earlier, before the confirmation of the leader’s death, a tweet had been posted from the supreme leader’s X account, purporting to show that he was still alive, and regime-affiliated media outlets had denied he was killed.
Trump wrote on social media that Khamenei’s death was “not only justice for the people of Iran, but for all great Americans, and those people from many countries throughout the world [who] have been killed or mutilated by [him] and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”
Netanyahu, in a video address to the public on Saturday night, said there were growing signs that Khamenei “is no more,” but did not openly declare him dead.
A Fox News reporter, citing an unnamed US official, said Washington believed Khamenei and five to 10 other top Iranian officials were killed in the initial Israeli strike of the operation, dubbed “Operation Roaring Lion” by Israel and “Operation Epic Fury” by the US.
Israel, having coordinated with the US, dropped some 30 bombs on Khamenei’s compound in the opening minutes of the assault, according to an unsourced Channel 12 news report. The same report claimed that the Iranian leader was underground at the location, but not in one of the two deepest bunkers that only US bombs could have penetrated.
Satellite imagery has shown the compound largely destroyed.
Two Iranian sources told Reuters that Khamenei had met with Shamkhani and Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani at a secure location shortly before the strikes started.
Iran responded to the Israeli and US strikes by firing dozens of ballistic missile barrages at Israel and the Gulf states, which are close allies of the US and host its military bases.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in American-Israeli strikes on Saturday morning, Iranian state media confirmed early Sunday morning, hours after US President Donald Trump declared the 86-year-old’s death in the most ambitious attack on Iran in decades.
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that US strikes would continue “uninterrupted” for the coming week or until peace is secured in Iran.
Israeli and US officials had increasingly projected confidence in the hours leading up to Trump’s remarks that the leader of the Islamic Republic had been killed in an airstrike on his compound.
An Israeli official briefing local media said the Iranian leader had been killed in an Israeli strike on his compound on Saturday morning, and a senior Israeli official told Reuters that his body had been found. Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been shown an image of his body after it was recovered from the compound in Tehran.
Iran’s state media said Khamenei was killed in his office in the early hours of Saturday, announcing a 40-day period of mourning. It added that family members of Khamenei were also killed, including his daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law.
Earlier, before the confirmation of the leader’s death, a tweet had been posted from the supreme leader’s X account, purporting to show that he was still alive, and regime-affiliated media outlets had denied he was killed.
Trump wrote on social media that Khamenei’s death was “not only justice for the people of Iran, but for all great Americans, and those people from many countries throughout the world [who] have been killed or mutilated by [him] and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”
“This morning, in a powerful surprise strike, the compound of the tyrant Ali Khamenei was destroyed in the heart of Tehran… and there are many signs that this tyrant is no longer alive,” the premier said.
A Fox News reporter, citing an unnamed US official, said Washington believed Khamenei and five to 10 other top Iranian officials were killed in the initial Israeli strike of the operation, dubbed “Operation Roaring Lion” by Israel and “Operation Epic Fury” by the US.
Israel, having coordinated with the US, dropped some 30 bombs on Khamenei’s compound in the opening minutes of the assault, according to an unsourced Channel 12 news report. The same report claimed that the Iranian leader was underground at the location, but not in one of the two deepest bunkers that only US bombs could have penetrated.
Satellite imagery has shown the compound largely destroyed.
Two Iranian sources told Reuters that Khamenei had met with Shamkhani and Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani at a secure location shortly before the strikes started.
Iran responded to the Israeli and US strikes by firing dozens of ballistic missile barrages at Israel and the Gulf states, which are close allies of the US and host its military bases.
As of Saturday night, two people had been confirmed dead in the strikes, including a woman in her 40s who was fatally wounded in a ballistic missile impact in Tel Aviv. The other confirmed casualty was a foreign worker in Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital.
While Israel was reportedly behind the specific strike that took out Khamenei, Trump indicated that the US played a major role, while coordinating with Jerusalem.
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 [who] have been killed along with him, could do,” Trump bragged.
“This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country. We are hearing that many of their [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], military, and other security and police forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking for immunity from us,” the US president added.
Such capitulations have not been verified.
Trump has called on Iranian security personnel to surrender in exchange for immunity or face imminent death.
“Hopefully, the IRGC and police will peacefully merge with the Iranian patriots and work together as a unit to bring back the country to the greatness it deserves,” Trump posted on Saturday. “That process should soon be starting in that, not only the death of Khamenei but the country has been, in only one day, very much destroyed and, even, obliterated.”
“The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!” the president concluded.
‘Years to recover’
It would take Iran “several years” to recover from the pummeling it received from the US and Israel, Trump said on Saturday evening, in a phone conversation with reporter Barak Ravid from Israel’s Channel 12 news.
The president said he could choose to make the campaign as long as he likes or finish within a matter of days, but warned that he would attack again if Iran attempted to rebuild.
“I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days and tell the Iranians: ‘See you again in a few years if you start rebuilding [your nuclear and missile programs],” Trump said in the five-minute phone interview from Mar-a-Lago with Ravid, who published the English quotes on Axios.
However, he stressed that “in any case, it will take them several years to recover from this attack.”
Netanyahu urges Iranians to rise up
Netanyahu, in his televised statement, said that Israel had eliminated commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, senior regime officials, and senior nuclear officials since Saturday morning, and that it would “hit thousands of targets of the terror regime” in the coming days.
The operation against Iran “will continue as long as is necessary,” the premier said, “and stamina is necessary.”
Vowing that the operation would lead to “true peace,” Netanyahu said Israel would create the conditions for the Iranian people to “free itself from the chains of dictatorship.”
He called on the Iranian people to unite and rise up against the regime, urging them in the Hebrew-language video not to forego the “once-in-a-generation” opportunity.”
“Soon your moment will come,” he said, “the moment when you must take to the streets in your masses, to take to the streets to complete the work to bring down the regime of horrors that embitters your lives.”
“Help has arrived,” he added in English.
The Israeli strikes on Iran continued into the night, with the Israeli Air Force confirming shortly after midnight that it had completed another wave of strikes targeting Iran’s ballistic missile launchers and air defense systems.
According to the IDF, the missile launchers and air defenses were struck in western and central Iran. The military also said it “attacked several launch sites in central Iran that had not yet been targeted.”
