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Iran Says Supreme Leader Was Killed During U.S.-Israeli Strikes

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The Iranian government said on Sunday that U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran had killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation’s supreme leader.

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Reuters

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Updated March 1, 2026, 12:41 a.m. ET

11 minutes ago

Farnaz FassihiRonen BergmanZolan Kanno-Youngs and Richard Pérez-Peña

Here’s the latest.

The Iranian government said on Sunday that U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran had killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation’s supreme leader for decades and an implacable enemy of Israel and the United States.

President Trump had announced the supreme leader’s death hours earlier, and called on Iranians to take control of the government. The Iranian state news agency confirmed the death on Sunday morning, as the war entered a second day with another wave of attacks on the country.

He died in his office at home in an attack early Saturday, according to Tasnim, a semiofficial Iranian news agency. The strikes killed several other senior Iranian figures, Iranian state media said. The United States and Israel had spent months developing deep intelligence on the Iranian leadership, according to people familiar with the operation.

Large crowds of Iranians poured into the streets of Tehran and other cities across Iran to celebrate Ayatollah Khamenei’s death. Others mourned his death. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a powerful institution that answers to the supreme leader — vowed to punish U.S. and Israeli aggression.

Iran’s president, the head of the judiciary and a jurist of the Guardian Council will be in charge during the transition period following the death, the Iranian state news agency said on Sunday, citing Mohammed Mokhbher, a senior politician. But the supreme leader’s death raises questions about who would ultimately run the country.

It is not clear whether removing Ayatollah Khamenei, who was 86, will result in significant changes to the system he led. Many people in authority owed their positions to him, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps recently demonstrated its grip on the country by brutally crushing mass protests, killing thousands of people.

Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had both made clear that regime change was a goal of the initial waves of strikes on Iran that began around 1 a.m. local time on Saturday. “When we are finished, take over your government,” Mr. Trump told the Iranian people in a video statement. “It will be yours to take.”

The Iranian leader’s death is a seismic political shift that raises the prospect of chaos and a power vacuum in an already turbulent region.

In retaliation for the attacks, Iran fired waves of ballistic missiles at Israel, where the authorities reported one death. The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait — all of which host U.S. military bases — said they had come under attack, as did Jordan. Falling debris from an Iranian ballistic missile attack killed at least one person in the Emirates, according to its government.

The fighting effectively shut down shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply, according to shipping companies and Tasnim. Major airports, including Dubai International in the United Arab Emirates, and a wide corridor of airspace were closed.

Analysts have warned that the fighting could potentially draw the United States into a protracted conflict with no clear exit. Iran’s leadership oversees extensive military abilities and a network of regional proxy forces that could help sustain a resistance.

Many world leaders urged restraint after the strike on Saturday. But the bombing continued early Sunday, according to Iranians reporting new rounds of explosions on social media. Mr. Trump warned that U.S. strikes “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!”

The effects of the attacks on Iranian civilians were not immediately clear. HRANA, a Washington-based Iranian rights group, said late Saturday that at least 133 civilians had been killed and that 200 others were injured — figures that could not be independently confirmed. The Iranian state media reported dozens of children were killed at a girl’s elementary school near a naval base. The U.S. and Israeli militaries did not immediately comment.

Here’s what else to know:

Celebrations in Tehran: As residents of Iran’s capital celebrated the supreme leader’s death, fireworks lit up the sky and loud Persian dance music filled the streets. But the threat of more attacks by U.S. and Israeli forces cast a pall over the festivities. Read more ›

Precise Targeting: The C.I.A. zeroed in on Ayatollah Khamenei’s location shortly before the United States and Israel attacked Iran. The operation reflects close coordination and intelligence sharing between the United States and Israel, as well as the failure of Iran’s leaders to avoid exposing themselves. Read more ›

Iranian Succession: The power to choose a new supreme leader rests with the Assembly of Experts, a conservative body of clerics who, given Ayatollah Khamenei’s age and infirmities, have probably given ample thought to potential successors. Read more ›

Shipping impacts: The closure of the Strait of Hormuz will almost certainly send oil prices upward. The U.S. Maritime Administration advised vessels to avoid the strait, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that the passage was unsafe for commercial traffic, Tasnim reported. Read more ›

The crisis: Mr. Trump vowed in early January to aid antigovernment demonstrators there. The Iranian government quelled those protests in a bloody crackdown that killed thousands, according to rights groups. Mr. Trump has more recently focused on Iran’s nuclear program. American and Iranian officials held a last-ditch round of mediated talks on Thursday over the program that ended without a breakthrough.

Last year’s strikes: The United States bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities last June during a 12-day-war between Israel and Iran. While Mr. Trump said repeatedly that the Iranian nuclear program had been “obliterated” by those strikes, it later emerged that the effort had been degraded, not destroyed. Read more ›