President Donald Trump announced that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed Saturday after the U.S. and Israel launched a predawn assault on the country he had ruled with an iron grip for 36 years. State TV later confirmed his death.
“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,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Trump told NBC News in an earlier interview that “most” of Iran’s senior leadership is “gone.”
Khamenei was killed amid a major military combat campaign dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” following months of heated rhetoric and repeated warnings from Trump about military intervention in Iran.
Khamenei’s death heralds a seismic shift for a nation that has been controlled by a theocratic regime since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. It also creates a leadership vacuum in Tehran as heads of state worldwide grapple with the prospect of wider regional instability.
In a video message online, Trump urged Iranian civilians to seize control of their government after the strikes concluded. “When we are finished, take over your government,” he said. “It will be yours to take.”
U.S. and partner Israeli forces struck multiple targets, including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control facilities, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and military airfields, U.S. Central Command announced in a statement.
There were no reports of American casualties, and the damage to U.S. facilities was minimal. More than 200 people were killed and 747 have been injured in the attacks on Iran, a spokesperson for the Red Crescent Society said in an interview with the Iranian Students’ News Agency.
“Twenty-four provinces across the country have been struck,” said the spokesman, Mojtaba Khaledi.
Tehran retaliated with a barrage of missiles at Israel and at U.S. bases in several countries across the region, while officials, aid groups and world leaders warned the confrontation could spill beyond its initial targets, drawing in more countries and destabilizing a region already on the edge.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council vowed in a statement that its armed forces would deliver a “crushing response” to the U.S. and Israeli attacks, as multiple U.S. allies in the region intercepted missiles targeting U.S. bases on their territory and throughout Israel.
Iran is attacking military facilities and not “Americans in their land,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with NBC News, adding that Tehran was interested in de-escalation and ready to talk once the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes end.
Trump, in his Truth Social post, said the U.S. “sought repeatedly to make a deal. We tried.”
The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting Saturday, with Secretary-General António Guterres warning that the attack on Iran “carries the risk of igniting a chain of events that no one can control in the most volatile region of the world.”
Khamenei, 86, an ideological hard-liner who was one of Iran’s longest-serving leaders and a lifelong foe of both the U.S. and Israel, took power in 1989. In the nearly 40 years that followed, he ruthlessly put down public demonstrations and silenced dissidents who challenged his rule.
In recent months, Iran had been gripped by nationwide protests fueled by widespread economic discontent and fury with the government. The country has seen periodic civilian demonstrations over the years, including some focused on the regime’s treatment of women.
Trump administration officials planned to brief lawmakers on the military attack Sunday, including members of the Senate and House intelligence, armed services and foreign affairs committees, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.
The U.S. previously struck Iran in June amid a different round of nuclear talks.
“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime,” Trump said in an eight-minute video message on Truth Social as the bombardment was underway.
The administration was taking “every possible step” to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel, Trump added, but he warned that the lives of “courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties.”
“That often happens in war,” he added.
Two U.S. officials told NBC News that Israel had been tasked with targeting Iranian leaders while the U.S. went after Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
Top congressional Democrats blasted Trump’s decision to launch military actions in Iran, arguing that the strikes required congressional approval, while most Republicans praised the action.
European powers condemned Iran’s retaliatory strikes on countries in the Middle East, with the leaders of the U.K., Germany and France urging Tehran in a joint statement to resume negotiations.
Trump said the military campaign would not end until peace was reached in the region.
“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!” he wrote.
