Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been killed in the coordinated U.S.–Israeli strikes carried out on Saturday, according to Israeli officials.
Neither Iranian authorities nor the United States government have formally confirmed his death. However, a senior U.S. defense official reportedly told Fox News that Washington agrees with Israel’s assessment.
The Associated Press reported that two anonymous Israeli officials also confirmed Khamenei’s death. Fox News Digital cited Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, as saying he had received word that the Iranian leader was killed.
Khamenei, who had ruled Iran since 1989, wielded ultimate political and military authority in the Islamic Republic. There is no immediate successor publicly designated to assume his position.
Israeli military officials further claimed that several other senior Iranian figures were killed in the strikes. Among them were Mohammad Pakpour, identified as commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Aziz Nasirzadeh, Iran’s defense minister; Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and a close adviser to Khamenei; and Mohammad Shirazi, head of Khamenei’s military bureau.
As the operation unfolded, U.S. President Donald Trump urged Iranians to “seize control of your destiny” and rise up against the country’s Islamic leadership. In a video message announcing what he described as “major combat operations,” Trump said that once military objectives were achieved, the Iranian people should “take over your government,” calling it a rare opportunity for change.
Trump has not publicly commented since reports of Khamenei’s death emerged.
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