tehran
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated on Saturday, state media confirmed, after the United States and Israel launched the most ambitious attack on Iranian targets in decades.
Iranian state media announced Khamenei’s death on Sunday morning.
A senior Israeli official told Reuters earlier that the Iranian leader’s body had been found after a strike, while US President Donald Trump said the United States worked closely with Israel to target the man who led Iran since 1989.
Iran has called the strikes unprovoked and illegal and responded with missiles fired at Israel and at least seven other countries, including Gulf states that host US bases.
On Sunday, Iranian state media reported that Khamenei “was carrying out his assigned duties and was present at his workplace (his office)”.
“This cowardly attack occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning,” it said, announcing 40 days of mourning and seven days of public holidays.
In a statement, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said: “We have lost a great leader, and we are mourning him, a leader who was unique in terms of purity of spirit, strength of faith, resourcefulness in affairs, courage in the face of the arrogant, and jihad in the path of God.”
The Guards also vowed “severe punishment” for the “murderers” and warned that the “most intensive” offensive on Israel and US bases would begin in moments.
“The hand of revenge of the Iranian nation for a severe, decisive and regrettable punishment for the murderers of the Imam of the Ummah will not let go of them.” Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Tehran on Sunday, saying it aimed to dominate the skies after assassinating Iran’s supreme leader and leaving the Islamic Republic grappling to rebuild its leadership amid its biggest test in five decades.
US and Israeli strikes — and Iranian retaliation — sent shockwaves through sectors from shipping to air travel to oil, amid warnings of rising energy costs and disruption to business in the Gulf, a strategic waterway and global trade hub.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said a leadership council composed of himself, the judiciary head and a member of the powerful Guardians Council had temporarily assumed the duties of Supreme Leader following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
