Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Killed, Senior Israeli Official Says
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A senior Israeli official told Reuters that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in Israeli and U.S. strikes.
Feb 28 (Reuters) - Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who turned the country into a powerful anti-U.S. force and extended its military influence across the Middle East while crushing repeated domestic unrest, was killed in Israeli and U.S. strikes, a senior Israeli official told Reuters on Saturday.
There was no immediate Iranian confirmation of his fate.
The United States and Israel carried out military strikes on Iran on Saturday, targeting its top leaders and plunging the Middle East into a conflict that President Donald Trump said would end a security threat to the U.S. and give Iranians a chance to topple their rulers.
Khamenei, 86, became Iran’s highest authority in 1989, following the death of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. As supreme leader, he held ultimate control over Iran’s political, military and religious institutions, shaping domestic policy and guiding foreign relations.
Israel long saw him as a destabilizing force in the Middle East, citing his backing for Iran’s network of militant allies, including Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. When Israel and Iran fought a 12-day air war in June 2025, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened to assassinate him, saying the supreme leader “cannot continue to exist.”
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