Iran state media confirms killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following US-Israeli missile strikes | US-Israel war on Iran

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been killed, Iranian state media confirmed Sunday, in the first salvo of a war aimed at regime change launched Saturday by the United States and Israel.

Khamenei had not been heard from since the strikes began, and satellite images showed his secure compound was heavily damaged during Saturday’s initial barrage.

The confirmation came hours after Donald Trump announced the death of the Ayatollah, who has ruled Iran as supreme leader since 1989, in an article on Truth Social.

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in history, is dead,” Trump wrote. “He could not avoid our highly sophisticated intelligence and tracking systems and, working closely with Israel, there was nothing he, nor the other leaders who were killed with him, could do. »

Trump said the goal of the military campaign, which began Saturday morning with a barrage of missiles and airstrikes, was regime change.

“This is the greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country,” he wrote.

“We hear that many of their IRGC members [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]The military and other security and police forces no longer want to fight and seek immunity from us.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, earlier said there were “many signs” that Khamenei was “no longer alive”, and Israeli officials informed media that his body had been found.

Iranian media reported Sunday that Khamenei’s daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter were also killed in Saturday’s strikes. The semi-official Fars News Agency, which has ties to the IRGC, reported: “After establishing contacts with knowledgeable sources within the Supreme Leader’s House, the news of the martyrdom of the revolutionary leader’s daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter was unfortunately confirmed. »

Early Sunday, the Israeli military announced it had launched a new wave of strikes against Iran’s ballistic missile and air defense systems. U.S. Central Command said Sunday it was “now taking rapid and decisive action as directed.”

In Israel, alerts sounded several times during the night warning of imminent Iranian attacks. A 50-year-old woman was killed Saturday evening when a missile struck Tel Aviv, the first death in Israel since the start of the war, media reported. Around 120 people were injured.

Iran also launched new strikes against US military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, while explosions were reported in Dubai. Shrapnel from an Iranian missile attack on the United Arab Emirates capital killed one person, state media said, and debris from aerial interceptions sparked fires in the city’s main port and on the facade of the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel.

The death of Iran’s supreme leader marks a first significant success in the joint U.S.-Israeli operation, which began with waves of air attacks across the country and plunged the Middle East into a new regional conflict with no timetable or certain outcome.

Khamenei has wielded political weight unmatched by any other serving Iranian official, military or religious leader.

Iran’s Assembly of Experts, a council of religious leaders, is expected to meet to select a new supreme leader after Khamenei’s death, although analysts have said the ultraconservative IRGC may be better positioned to consolidate power.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and another senior official will lead Iran during the transition period following Khamenei’s death, state media reported.

Iran also confirmed on Sunday that the head of the Revolutionary Guards – General Mohammad Pakpour – and another senior security adviser – had been killed in Saturday’s attacks.

Netanyahu said the Israeli strikes had also killed “several leaders” involved in Iran’s nuclear program and that strikes against sites linked to the program would continue in the coming days.

In a previous video speech, Trump said Operation Epic Fury would end a threat to U.S. security and give Iranians a chance to “rise up” against their leaders. Netanyahu, in his evening speech, called on Iranians to “flood the streets and finish the job.”

Iranian media reported that 201 people were killed and 747 injured in the initial US-Israeli attacks, including more than 100 children at a school.

Iranian officials said they were not surprised by the U.S. attacks and that the consequences would be “long and far-reaching. All scenarios were on the table, including those not previously considered.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened all U.S. bases and interests in the region and said Iranian retaliation would continue until “the enemy is definitively defeated.”

Centcom said the military had “successfully defended itself” against hundreds of Iranian missiles and drones and that no U.S. casualties had been reported.

A senior Trump administration official said the United States chose to launch strikes against Iran on Saturday because its ballistic missile program presented an “intolerable” threat to American forces and its allies in the region and that the United States had information that Iran was considering a preemptive strike.

“The threat from Iran is ultimately its ambition to acquire nuclear weapons, but in the short term it is the conventional weapon, the conventional missile capability that they have, particularly in the southern belt, that poses a threat to the United States and our allies in the region,” the official said, adding that the United States has been “quite effective” in targeting Iranian launchers.

“The president has decided that he is not going to stand by and allow U.S. forces in the region to absorb conventional missile attacks,” the official added.

At an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Saturday, the United States and Israel clashed with Iran, with US Ambassador Mike Waltz insisting the military action was legal.

“Iran cannot have nuclear weapons,” he told the Council. “This principle is not a question of politics. It is a question of global security.

Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the council that the airstrikes killed and injured hundreds of Iranian civilians, which he called a war crime and a crime against humanity.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an end to their attacks and a resumption of negotiations. “The alternative,” he warned, “is a wider potential conflict with serious consequences for civilians and regional stability.”