There are emerging claims that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, may have been killed during the initial strikes by the United States and Israel earlier today.
According to Israeli media outlet Channel 12, unnamed sources from Israel suggest there are increasingly strong indications that Khamenei was either killed or at least injured in this morning’s aerial assaults.
Reports from officials have indicated that these attacks inflicted ‘very significant harm’ on the Iranian regime’s leadership and military hierarchy.
Since the coordinated US and Israeli offensive began on Saturday morning, Khamenei has not made any public statements.
Israeli insiders revealed that the joint mission, led by President Donald Trump, specifically aimed at Iran’s supreme leader in the initial wave of missile strikes.
It is believed that the first explosions occurred near Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s offices in Tehran, the capital city.
The results of the strikes are unclear, an Israeli official said, with earlier reports suggesting that the supreme leader had been moved out of Tehran to a secure location.
Both Khamenei’s palace and compound in Tehran are reported to have been completely destroyed in today’s operation.
There are ‘growing indications’ that Iran ’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the first wave of the US and Israeli strikes earlier today
Footage shows smoke billowing into the sky above Khamenei’s complex
Video footage from Tehran shows smoke billowing into the sky above the compound this morning, which is understood to be used as his official residence in the Iranian capital.
Screams and giggles could be heard ringing out from a nearby rooftop as onlookers watched the blast. ‘Oh my God they hit it. They struck it. Oh my God,’ one woman shouts.
It comes after it was reported that the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and ‘architect’ of the regime’s brutal crackdown against protesters is already said to have been killed in the strikes.
Israeli sources said they believed that IRGC commander General Mohammad Pakpour has been eliminated.
Today, the US and Israel jointly launched a wave of strikes across Iran, with President Trump releasing a statement effectively telling Iranian troops to ‘surrender or die’.
The two nations struck targets in cities including Tehran, Bushehr, Qom, Karaj, Kermanshah and Isfahan. In the capital, Khamenei’s palace, compound, the Ministry of Intelligence and Ministry of Defence were all affected.
Elsewhere, the two nations hit southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and an area said to be housing Iran-supporting militia groups in al-Nasr, Iraq.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump told the Ayatollah to either ‘surrender or die’ as he announced the US had launched strikes across several cities in Iran.
He said: ‘To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity.
‘Or in the alternative, face certain death. So, lay down your arms. You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death.’
Iran said there would be a ‘crushing response’ and launched missiles across Israel including in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem.
In a statement, the country’s military said that all US ‘bases, resources and assets’ are ‘legitimate targets’.
Dramatic footage showed the moment Iran his US’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain, with a huge mushroom of smoke billowing into the sky following an explosion.
Aerial photographs show the Iranian supreme leader’s Tehran compound razed to rubble after Donald Trump unleashed joint US-Israeli airstrikes on the city
People watch as smoke rises on the skyline after an explosion in Tehran, Iran
President Trump announced on Saturday morning the United States had begun ‘major combat operations’ in Iran with thick black smoke seen rising into the sky
A man looks on as a plume of smoke rises following a reported explosion in Tehran
Iran also targeted US infrastructure at Al Dhafra Air Base in the UAE, Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and areas in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Explosions have been reported in Dubai and Syria, and Jordan has shot down two ballistic missiles.
Iran and Israel continue to exchange fire this afternoon, with multiple waves of strikes across the Middle East.
Countries across the world are appealing for calm and urgent de-escalation, with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer holding an emergency Cobra meeting in Downing Street today.
President Trump is expected to give an update on today’s operation – dubbed ‘Epic Fury’ by the Americans – later.
The 86-year-old Khamenei has been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989 when he succeeded the Islamic Republic’s late founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Khamenei has had ultimate control over all branches of Iran’s government, the military and the judiciary.
He has also been the country’s spiritual leader for the decades he has been in control.
Khamenei’s dictatorship has been marked by his adversarial relationship with the West and in particular the United States.
His relationship with Donald Trump’s administration rapidly deteriorated in recent weeks as American warships moved into the region, and Trump said he wanted a deal to constrain Iran’s nuclear programme.
The US president saw an opportunity to assert his influence while Iran has been consumed by dissent at home with nationwide protests.
Khamenei had hoped to avert a war but maintained his country has the right to enrich uranium.
He has long said Iran would never build a nuclear weapon and that the development of such technology was for civilian purposes only.
