Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been reportedly killed in joint US-Israeli strikes, according to Iranian state media.
The attacks also claimed the lives of his daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter.
“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.
The state media said Iran announced 40 days of public mourning after Khamenei’s killing.
Earlier on Saturday, US President Donald Trump and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Khamenei was “dead.”
“This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty thugs,” Trump said.
“This morning, in a powerful surprise attack, we destroyed the compound of the tyrant Khamenei,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
Israel and the US timed their attack on Iran on Saturday to coincide with a meeting Khamenei was holding with top aides, according to two US sources and a US official familiar with the development.
Israel claimed Khamenei was killed along with top lieutenants including Ali Shamkhani, the powerful former National Security Council secretary, and Mohammad Pakpour, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander.
Two Iranian sources according to Reuters said that Khamenei met on Saturday with Shamkhani and Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani at a secure location shortly before the strikes started.
A senior Israeli official told Reuters that Khamenei’s body had been found.
Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that Iran’s top leader was killed after intelligence pinpointed his movements.
“He 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.
The two US sources who doesn’t want to be quoted, said that confirmation of Khamenei’s meeting with top advisers put the Israeli-U.S. air and naval operation into motion.
The US official said the attack needed to strike Khamenei first to maintain the element of surprise, suggesting there was concern the Iranian leader would escape into hiding if he had the opportunity.
One US source said that Khamenei had originally been expected to hold the meeting on Saturday evening in Tehran.
But intelligence detected a meeting on Saturday morning, and the strikes were moved forward, the sources said.
The location of the meeting was not immediately clear.
But Khamenei’s high-security compound in Tehran was struck at the beginning of the operation, and satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters confirmed that it had been destroyed.
