Trump Says Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Is Dead

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday afternoon that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was dead following the joint U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Khamenei was “unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems,” Trump wrote, adding that there was “not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do.”

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Khamenei, 86, had held ultimate control over Iran’s political, military and religious institutions as Iran’s supreme leader since 1989. He had no known successor, per the Associated Press, making his death likely to create a power vacuum.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, seen here in 2024, is dead following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, President Donald Trump announced.

Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP

Trump had announced early morning Saturday that the U.S. and Israel had launched a major attack on Iran. In his announcement, he seemed to push for regime change, urging the Iranian people to “seize control” of their “destiny.” He echoed that sentiment in his statement on Khamenei, calling the situation “the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.”

However, Trump said that “the heavy and pinpoint bombing” of Iran 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!”

Iranian state media said Saturday evening that at least 201 people were killed and 700 injured in the strikes, with more than 50 killed in a strike on a girls’ school.

Iran retaliated with its own strikes on Israel as well as U.S. military bases throughout the region. As of Saturday afternoon, the U.S. military had reported no American casualties.