Iran’s state TV has confirmed the death of Iran’ supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The country has announced 40 days of mourning and seven public holidays over Khamenei’s death.
Khamenei’s daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law were also killed.
Iran’s Fars news agency has published a statement from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announcing the start of “the most devastating offensive operation in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
The offensive will begin in “just moments”, the IRGC said, and will target the “occupied territories and American terrorist bases” in the region.
The BBC reported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying earlier that there were “growing signs” that Iran’s supreme leader is “gone”.
He said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s compound had been destroyed and Revolutionary Guard commanders and senior nuclear officials had been destroyed, as reported by Reuters.
A new satellite photo showed the secure compound of Khamenei being damaged amid the latest US and Israeli attacks in Tehran on Saturday.
The image, published by The New York Times and taken by Airbus, showed a black plume of smoke over the Tehran compound. It also showed collapsed buildings at the complex, which served as Khamenei’s residence.
Netanyahu further called on Iranians to “take to the streets and finish the job.”
“This morning we destroyed the compound of the tyrant Khamenei,” Netanyahu said in a video statement, adding that for more than 30 years Khamenei had “dispatched terrorism across the world, made his own people miserable, and worked constantly and tirelessly on a program to annihilate the state of Israel”, as reported by Reuters.
A report from Israel’s Channel 12 said that in a joint US–Israeli operation against Iran on Saturday, about 30 bombs were dropped on the compound of Khamenei.
Reuters, citing a senior Israeli official, also reported that Khamenei’s body has been found.
Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter has informed US officials that Khamenei was killed in the strike on his compound in Tehran. And multiple Israeli outlets, including News 12 and Times of Israel, cited Israeli officials also claiming that the supreme leader had died.
Initial strikes reportedly this morning took place near the offices of Khamenei.
Reuters had reported earlier on that the 86-year-old leader was not in Tehran and had been transferred to a secure location at the time.
Countries that maintain diplomatic ties with Israel, including Morocco, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, denounced Iranian strikes targeting US military bases including in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the Emirates.
(Agencies; Picture Courtesy: AP)
