Khamenei killed in US attack
Tehran/Dubai: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack by Israel and the United States, Iranian state media confirmed on Sunday, throwing the future of the Islamic Republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability.
President Donald Trump announced the death of Khamenei hours earlier, saying it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country.
State media reported that the 86-year-old ruler was killed in an airstrike targeting his compound in downtown Tehran. Satellite photos showed that the site was heavily bombed.
His death at his office “showed that he consistently stood among the people and at the forefront of his responsibilities, confronting what officials call global arrogance,” state TV said.
President Donald Trump framed the killing as a historic opening for regime change, saying: “This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.” Trump warned of “heavy and pinpoint bombing” that he said would continue throughout the week and even beyond, part of a lethal assault the US has justified as necessary to disable the country’s nuclear capabilities.
Iran, which responded to the strikes with its own counterassault, warned of retribution, with the Cabinet saying that this “great crime will never go unanswered.”
The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to launch its “most intense offensive operation” ever targeting Israeli and American bases.
Residents have reported hearing fresh explosions in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, and Manama on Sunday, as Iran continues to fire missiles at countries in the Middle East where US troops are stationed.
Sirens sounded in Manama, where correspondents heard an explosion, while in the Qatari capital a journalist heard a blast faintly. Visuals showed a hotel struck by an Iranian strike. They could not be verified independently.
A Dubai resident said that he heard some explosions in the distance but could not confirm whether those were Iranian strikes. “We have been hearing explosions every few hours,” said R Choudhary, a communications professional from India living in Dubai.
The attack opened a stunning new chapter in US intervention in Iran, carried the potential for retaliatory violence and a wider war, and represented a startling flex of military might for an American president who swept into office on an “America First” platform and vowed to keep out of “forever wars.”
The killing of Khamenei in the second Trump administration assault on Iran in eight months appeared certain to create a leadership vacuum given the absence of a known successor and because the 86-year-old supreme leader had final say on all major policies during his decades in power. He led Iran’s clerical establishment and the Revolutionary Guard, the two main centers of power in the governing theocracy.
Iran quickly formed a council to govern the country until a new supreme leader is chosen. State media also reported the deaths of the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and a top security adviser to Khamenei in airstrikes. Maj Gen Mohammad Pakpour took over as the Guard’s top commander after Israel killed its past commander in the 12-day war last June. The adviser, Ali Shamkhani, had long been a figurehead within Iran’s security establishment, IRNA said.
As reports trickled out about Khamenei’s death, eyewitnesses in Tehran said some residents were rejoicing, cheering from rooftops, blowing whistles and letting out ululations.
Meanwhile, Mourners raised a black mourning flag over the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city and a major pilgrimage site for Shiite Muslims. The Iranian government declared 40 days of public mourning and a seven-day nationwide public holiday to commemorate Khamenei’s death.
Citing unidentified sources, the semiofficial news agency, believed to be close to the Revolutionary Guard, reported that several relatives of Khamenei were also killed, including a daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and grandchild.
The joint US-Israel operation, which officials say was planned for months, took place Saturday during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan and at the start of the Iranian workweek. It followed stilted negotiations and warnings from Trump, who last year trumpeted his administration’s success in incapacitating the country’s nuclear program but nonetheless cast the latest round as necessary to head off its potential resurgence.
Israel, for its part, said it had killed the commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the country’s Defense Minister, as well as the secretary of the Iranian Security Council, a close adviser to Khamenei.
An Iranian diplomat told the United Nations Security Council that hundreds of civilians were killed and wounded in the strikes. Iran retaliated by firing missiles and drones toward Israel and at US military bases in the region, and exchanges of fire continued into the night.
Iran responded to the latest strikes by launching missiles and drones toward Israel and targeting US military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. The Israeli military said Iran fired dozens of missiles at Israel, with many intercepted.