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Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack by Israel and the United States, Iranian state media confirmed early on Sunday, throwing the future of the Islamic Republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability.
The Times Colonist reports that President Donalld Trump announced the death saying it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country.
State media reported that the 86-year-old was killed in an air-strike targeting his compound in downtown Tehran. Satellite photos from Airbus 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.
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote. He 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 intensive offensive operation” ever targeting Israeli and American bases.
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 Khameinei 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 centres of power in the governing theocracy.
Iran quickly formed a council to govern the country until a new supreme leader is chosen.
As reports trickled out about Khamenei’s death, eyewitnesses in Tehran told The Associated Press that some residents were rejoicing, cheering from rooftops, blowing whistles and letting out ululations.
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.
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.
