Iran’s Supreme Leader, 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a joint American-Israeli operation against Iran on Saturday, state-run Iranian media confirmed.
The Iranian government announced 40 days of mourning. The country’s supreme leader was killed following an attack launched by the US and Israel on Saturday against Iran, as part of a major military campaign aimed at toppling the Islamic regime.
Israel’s military said high-ranking Iranian security officials were among the dead, including the country’s Defense Minister, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, and the secretary of the Iranian National Security Council, a close advisor to Khamenei. State-run Iranian media confirmed their deaths.
Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike, an official briefed on the attack told NPR. The NPR source requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly. Trump did not confirm that the strike was carried out by Israel.
Trump posted on Truth Social that Israel, with US support, had killed Khamenei.
“He couldn’t evade our Highly Sophisticated Intelligence and Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was nothing he, or the other leaders who were killed along with him, could do,” Trump said. Hours later, he warned Iran against further retaliation, writing “THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE NEVER SEEN BEFORE!”
The initial wave of US and Israeli airstrikes began after sunrise in Iran on Saturday, with massive explosions echoing in the capital Tehran. Initial videos showed large clouds of thick smoke.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the strikes a “grave violation” of its national sovereignty. A statement said the airstrikes hit military and civilian targets.
The Iranian Red Crescent relief group said more than 200 people were killed in strikes across Iran.
The speaker of the Iranian parliament on Sunday called the leaders of the United States and Israel “filthy criminals” who will face “devastating blows” for the attacks.
“They hit many targets around me and we heard jets and missiles exploding,” said a resident in west Tehran reached by phone before communications were cut in Iran. Like other Iranian residents interviewed by NPR, he did not want to use his name for fear of arrest. “People were panicking and trying to get home. Children were running out of school.”
State-run Iranian media said one of the airstrikes hit a girls’ primary school in southern Iran, killing at least 85 children, according to the local prosecutor’s office. Prosecutors said more girls were still buried under the rubble. Saturday is the start of the school and work week in Iran. NPR is seeking comment from Israeli authorities on the report that a school was hit.
Capt. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for US Central Command, told NPR on Saturday that he was aware of reports of civilian injuries.
“We take these reports seriously and are investigating,” Hawkins said. “The protection of civilians is of utmost importance, and we will continue to take all available precautions to minimize the risk of unintended harm. Unlike Iran, we never — and would never — target civilians.”
Iran continued to respond with its own missile and drone launches, spreading the conflict to the broader region. Air raid sirens sounded in Israel as multiple missiles targeted Tel Aviv and Jerusalem early Sunday. According to Israeli rescue services, the first 24 hours of the latest conflict resulted in one person killed and 121 injured.
Several Gulf countries also reported Iranian strikes, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. The Jordanian government, which also hosts major US military bases, reported shooting down 49 drones and ballistic missiles that threatened its territory.
In Dubai, smoke was visibly rising from the world’s busiest international airport and its main port, while debris from air defense systems colliding with Iranian drones caused several injuries in a residential area.
“Our goal is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very tough and terrible people,” Trump said in an eight-minute video posted on Truth Social on Saturday.
Tense Background to the Attacks
The joint US-Israel attack — dubbed “Epic Fury” by the Pentagon and “Roaring Lion” by Israel — came after weeks of escalating tensions and a major US military buildup in the region. The US had said it was trying to negotiate a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program, holding the latest round of talks on Thursday in Geneva. But Trump said those efforts had failed.
On the eve of the military attack, analysts speculated whether Trump would opt for a brief and limited strike — as he had previously in Iran and in many other cases over the past year — or choose a broader operation. Initial impressions — and the president’s own words — pointed to a large-scale, open-ended bombing campaign.
“We will destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated,” Trump said, adding: “We will annihilate their navy.”
The president claims Iran was rebuilding its nuclear program before the attack — Trump had frequently said the program was “totally obliterated” in last June’s US and Israeli strikes.
Trump also told the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps to surrender: “Drop your weapons. You will be treated fairly and with total immunity, or face certain death.”
Military Strikes in the Middle East
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has monitored Iran’s program for years, along with other nuclear experts, said there is no evidence that Iran has resumed uranium enrichment, the core of the program.
Before launching the attack, Trump said he preferred a negotiated deal but would also welcome a regime change. Otherwise, he offered little insight into his endgame in Iran.
But in his video, he made clear that he wants Iran’s religious leadership, which has ruled for 47 years, to fall.
Speaking directly to the Iranian people, he told them to shelter in place for now, while the bombing takes place. Then he added: “When we’re done, take control of your government. It will be yours to take. This will probably be your only chance for generations.”
However, Iranian security forces brutally suppressed mass protests in the streets last month. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency says more than 7,000 people were killed. Trump put the death toll at 32,000 without citing a source.
A Tehran resident reached by NPR said on Saturday that internal security forces were flooding the streets in some residential neighborhoods.
“Many of them are on the streets on motorcycles, brandishing their weapons,” she said. “They want to create fear.”
There is no sign that the US will send ground troops to Iran, and military analysts say it will be extremely difficult to topple the government with air power alone.
Therefore, it is impossible to say whether the Iranian leadership could be vulnerable to a domestic uprising, or if it would be able to crush protests as it did earlier this year.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the US and Israeli strikes on Saturday, as well as Iran’s retaliatory attacks.
“We are witnessing a grave threat to international peace and security. Military action carries the risk of igniting a chain of events that no one can control in the world’s most volatile region,” Guterres said during an emergency UN Security Council meeting. “Let me be clear: There is no viable alternative to the peaceful settlement of international disputes. Lasting peace can only be achieved by peaceful means, including genuine dialogue and negotiations.”
Hundreds of Targets Hit
Israel’s military said it completed the largest air force operation in the country’s history, with about 200 jets striking about 500 targets in western and central Iran, including air defense systems and missile launchers, expanding Israel’s air superiority over Iran.
An Israeli military official told reporters that the US and Israeli armies had spent months building an extensive target bank in Iran and were looking for the right moment to strike when high-ranking Iranian officials gathered. The official said three separate meetings of top officials were hit simultaneously on Saturday morning.
Hours before Trump announced the supreme leader’s death, NPR was told by a person briefed on the strikes that Israel’s assessment was that Supreme Leader Khamenei had been hit and, later, from another source with knowledge of the strikes, that he was killed in an Israeli strike.
That account contradicts what Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had previously told NBC News — that Khamenei and Iran’s president were still alive “as far as I know,” as were other top officials.
The military said the operation was conducted with “full synchronization and coordination” between the Israeli and US armies.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said the goal of the joint US-Israel attack is to “remove the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran.”
“Our joint action will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands,” Netanyahu said in a video.
A person briefed on the operation told NPR that it is expected to last a few days, with Israel’s military focusing on targeting Iran’s missile program.
Israel closed its airspace to all passenger flights, and civil defense protocols were activated. Regional military forces remain on high alert.
A 48-hour state of emergency was declared nationwide. Air raid sirens sounded across Israel, with authorities urging civilians to enter bomb shelters.
Trails of smoke streaked the sky above Tel Aviv as Israeli interception systems fired at incoming missiles. A hospital in central Israel began transferring operations to an underground fortified complex.
In the Gulf, several countries provided details on Iranian strikes.
The Bahraini government said an Iranian airstrike hit the US Navy base housing the US Fifth Fleet.
The United Arab Emirates, another US ally, said it intercepted Iranian missiles. They said shrapnel from one of the missiles killed a national of an unspecified Asian country in Abu Dhabi.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Saturday afternoon that the president spoke with leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Source: npr.org