This report has been updated.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is reportedly killed, as the Iranian state media now say the 86-year-old supreme leader was killed in the joint US-Israeli assault launched on Saturday.
Reuters reported that Iranian state media confirmed his death hours after Washington and Jerusalem said the strike had killed him, ending the earlier dispute over whether the claim was only an Israeli battlefield assessment.
The US and Israel reportedly timed the attack to coincide with a meeting Khamenei was holding with top aides, after confirmation of that gathering triggered the strike package. A senior Israeli official told Reuters Khamenei’s body had been found, while Reuters also reported satellite imagery confirmed his high-security compound in Tehran was destroyed.
President Donald Trump publicly tied himself to the kill confirmation, saying Khamenei was killed after intelligence tracked his movements, and quoted him calling the Iranian leader “one of the most evil people in History.” Reuters also reported Trump argued the attacks were meant to end a long-running threat from Iran and ensure Tehran could not develop a nuclear weapon, while he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Iranians to rise up against their government.
The strike did not stop at Khamenei. Israel said Khamenei was killed along with top lieutenants including Ali Shamkhani and IRGC commander Mohammad Pakpour, with earlier reports describing the attacks took out at least seven senior military commanders.
Iranian state media said Khamenei was working in his office when the attack occurred and that his daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law, and son-in-law were also killed.
The following day, Israel reportedly launched another wave of strikes on Iran, targeting ballistic missile and air defense systems, while Iran had already responded with hundreds of missiles and drones aimed at US troops in the region and cities in Israel and Arab countries aligned with Washington.
Reuters also reported damage in Dubai, one death and seven injuries tied to an incident at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport, and renewed fears over disruption through the Strait of Hormuz.
On the human toll, the most precise figure surfaced in widely cited coverage as at least 201 killed and 747 injured.
Khamenei’s death leaves a power vacuum with no clear successor chosen, with US intelligence assessing before the strike that he could be replaced by IRGC hardliners. Essentially, experts do not see his death as necessarily ending Iran’s clerical system or the Revolutionary Guards’ hold over the state.
Iran’s constitution sets out a formal succession process after the death of a supreme leader. Under Article 111, the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member body of clerics approved by voters, chooses the successor, while a temporary three-member council made up of the president, the judiciary chief, and a Guardian Council jurist selected by the Expediency Discernment Council assumes the supreme leader’s duties until that decision is made.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was overthrown in 1979 revolution, said he believes Khamenei’s death could mark the start of political change in Iran and urged both state forces and the public to prepare for a transition.
“This is your final opportunity to join the nation, to help ensure Iran’s stable transition to a free and prosperous future, and to take part in building that future,” Pahlavi said on X. “Remain vigilant and prepared. The time for a widespread and decisive presence in the streets is very near.”
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