Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated during an Israeli air strike on his Tehran compound during a joint operation with the United States on Saturday, Fox News reported.
UPDATE 5:00 PM: U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “is dead”. Writing on his Truth Social platform, President Trump described Khamenei as “one of the most evil people in History.”
“This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS. He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do,” he wrote.
President Trump again called on the Iranian people to rise up and “take back their country” and urged police, military, and security services to surrender immediately if they hope to be granted immunity from prosecution.
“As I said last night, ‘Now they can have Immunity, later they only get Death!’ Hopefully, the IRGC and Police will peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots, and work together as a unit to bring back the Country to the Greatness it deserves. That process should soon be starting in that, not only the death of Khamenei but the Country has been, in only one day, very much destroyed and, even, obliterated. The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
The original story continues as follows…
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, who took control of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1989 after previously serving from 1981 as president, has reportedly been killed, according to Fox News, citing Israeli leadership sources.
The Times of London reported that a senior Israeli official said that the Ayatollah’s body “has been found” under the rubble of an Israeli air strike.
Khamenei has been Iran’s longest-serving leader since Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was deposed in an Islamist coup in 1979.
According to a report from the Jerusalem Post, evidence of Khamenei’s body was allegedly shown to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
During a televised address aired prior to the reports of Khamenei’s death, Netanyahu said that there were indications Khamenei was “no more”.
He called on the Iranian public to stand up and “free itself from the chains of dictatorship.”
Khamenei’s death came amid a large coordinated assault by the United States and Israel in which dozens of senior Iranian officials were targeted.