Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed by missile strike on Iran, says Donald Trump | US-Israel war on Iran
Donald Trump claimed that Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening salvo of the regime change war launched by the US and Israel on Saturday.
The US president announced the death of the Ayatollah, who has ruled Iran as the supreme leader since 1989, in a post on Truth Social.
“Khamenei, one of the worst people in history, is dead,” Trump wrote.
“He could not evade our Intelligence and Highly Advanced Tracking Systems, and because he worked closely with Israel there was nothing he or the other leaders killed with him could have done.”
Trump said that the aim of the military operation, which started with missile and air strikes on Saturday morning, was regime change.
“This is the greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country,” he wrote.
“Many IRGCs [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]”The Army and other Security and Police Forces do not want to fight anymore and want immunity from us.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously said that there were “many signs” that Khamenei was “no longer alive”, and Israeli officials had informed the media that Khamenei’s body had been found.
The death of Iran’s supreme leader is a significant early success of a joint US-Israeli operation that began with airstrikes across the country and plunged the Middle East into a new regional conflict with no specific timeline or outcome.
Earlier Saturday, Trump told NBC: “Most of the people who made all the decisions are gone.” He added that a “large number of leaders” had also been killed in Iran.
Khamenei carried a political burden unmatched by any serving Iranian official, military or religious leader.
Iran’s council of experts, a council of experts made up of religious leaders, must meet to choose a new religious leader when Khamenei dies, but analysts say the ultra-conservative Revolutionary Guard may be in a better position to consolidate power.
Khamenei had not been heard from since the attacks began, and satellite images showed his secure compound was heavily damaged in the initial bombardment.
Netanyahu said that “several leaders” involved in Iran’s nuclear program were killed in the Israeli attacks and that attacks on sites related to the program will continue in the coming days.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi previously claimed to NBC News that Khamenei and president Masoud Pezeshkian are alive “as far as I know.”
In an earlier video speech, Trump claimed Operation Epic Rage would end a security threat to the United States and give Iranians a chance to “rise up” against their rulers. In his evening speech, Netanyahu called on Iranians to “take to the streets and finish the job.”
Iranian media reported that 201 people were killed and 747 injured, including more than 80 school children, in the initial US-Israeli attacks.
Iranian officials said they were not surprised by the US attacks and that the consequences “will be long-lasting and comprehensive. All scenarios are on the table, including those not previously considered.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard threatened all US bases and interests in the region and said Iran’s retaliation would continue “until the enemy is definitively defeated.”
In response to the attack, Iran launched missile and drone strikes against US bases, including the headquarters of the US Navy’s fifth fleet in Bahrain, Israeli residential areas, and targets in other Gulf countries, including the Fairmont hotel in Dubai and a high-rise building in Bahrain.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the military “successfully defended” against hundreds of Iranian missiles and drones and that no US casualties were reported.
The United States chose to attack Iran on Saturday because its ballistic missile program poses an “irresistible” threat to U.S. forces and allies in the region and because the United States had information that Iran was considering a preemptive strike, a senior Trump administration official said.
“The threat from Iran is ultimately their ambition to acquire nuclear weapons, but in the short term, the conventional weapons they have, especially in the southern belt, their conventional missile capacity, pose a threat to the United States and our allies in the region,” the official said, adding that the United States has proven “quite effective” in targeting Iranian launchers.
“The President has decided that he will not sit back and allow American forces in the region to absorb attacks from conventional missiles,” the official added.
