Iranian state media confirms death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, died during this weekend’s U.S.-Israeli attack on the country, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB has announced. “The supreme leader of Iran has achieved martyrdom,” IRIB said early on Sunday.

IRIB confirmed the news hours after Khamenei’s death was announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“Justice for the people of Iran” - Trump

Trump called Khamenei’s death “not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans” in a post on his social network, Truth Social. He said this was “the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.”

“We are hearing that many of their IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], Military, and other Security and Police Forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking immunity from us,” Trump wrote.

The president added that the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue throughout the week, or for “as long as necessary to achieve” the “objective of peace throughout the Middle East and, indeed, the world!”

Hours earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said there were “signs” that Khamenei had died. Shortly afterward, an Israeli official source said the ayatollah’s body had been found.

Reactions to Ali Khamenei’s death

A video circulating on social media - verified and published by the BBC - shows Iranians in the city of Karaj, near Tehran, celebrating the leader’s death.

Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah and a U.S. resident, posted on social media: “Ali Khamenei, the bloodthirsty despot of our time, the murderer of tens of thousands of Iran’s bravest sons and daughters, has been erased from the face of history. With his death, the Islamic Republic has in effect reached its end and will very soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.”

“No one knows” - Marco Rubio

U.S. intelligence agencies had previously assessed that, in the event of a regime change in Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would likely fill the power vacuum. In January, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “no one knows” who would take control if the regime were to fall.

The U.S.–Israeli strikes, which began early Saturday, have killed 200 people - including 108 children in the bombing of a school in Minab, in southern Iran - and injured 700 so far, according to the Iranian Red Crescent. In Israel, there is one confirmed death and 121 injured, according to the national emergency service.

According to the Israeli military, in addition to Khamenei, seven senior regime officials were killed, including Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh and Revolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Pakpour.

Iranian forces have launched retaliatory strikes in Israel and on U.S. military facilities in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates - where one person was killed and seven injured - and Qatar.

Iran’s representative to the United Nations said the attacks would continue “within the framework of Iran’s lawful exercise of self‑defense.”

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