Last Updated on March 1, 2026 4:31 pm by BIZNAMA NEWS
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Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been killed in a major attack by Israel and the United States, Iranian state media confirmed early Sunday, throwing the future of the Islamic Republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability.
President Donald Trump announced the death hours earlier, saying it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country.
State media reported that the 86-year-old was killed in an airstrike targeting his compound in downtown Tehran. Satellite photos from Airbus showed the site heavily bombed.
Iran’s Ali Shamkhani, top advisor to the supreme leader, and Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammed Pakpour have also been killed, IRNA reported.
His death at his office “showed that he consistently stood among the people and at the forefront of his responsibilities, confronting what officials call global arrogance,” state TV said.
Iran’s Cabinet warned that this “great crime will never go unanswered.”
Iran State TV also confirmed on Sunday that Iran’s chief of army staff, Gen. Abdol Rahim Mousavi and Defense Minister Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh had also been killed.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard also warned of “a severe, decisive and regret-inducing punishment” coming over Khamenei’s killing.
Iranians initially cheered from rooftops and their homes in Tehran, Iran’s capital, when rumors first started to spread late Saturday of Khamenei’s death.
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote in a social media post. He warned of “heavy and pinpoint bombing” that he said would continue throughout the week and even beyond, part of a lethal assault the US has justified as necessary to disable the country’s nuclear capabilities.
The attack opened a stunning new chapter in US intervention in Iran, carried the potential for retaliatory violence and a wider war, and represented a startling flex of military might for an American president who swept into office on an “America First” platform and vowed to keep out of “forever wars.”
Effects could extend to markets and other countries
The strikes could rattle global markets, particularly if Iran makes the Strait of Hormuz unsafe for commercial traffic. A third of worldwide oil exports transported by sea passed through the strait in 2025.
Saudi Arabia said Iran targeted its capital and eastern region in an attack that was repelled. Bahrain said a missile attack targeted the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in the island kingdom, and three buildings were damaged in the capital, Manama, and Muharraq city by drone strikes and debris from an intercepted missile.
