Iran has formally confirmed that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in joint US and Israeli bombardment on his home in Tehran on Saturday, as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched what it described as its “most intense offensive operation in history,” targeting nearly 30 US military bases across multiple Middle Eastern countries.
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“To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return,” an Iranian news agency said in confirming Khamenei’s death.
Khamenei, Iran’s leader of 37 years, and members of his close family were decimated by the joint US and Israeli strikes on Saturday morning.
The IRGC announced it was carrying out a “sixth wave” of “extensive missile and drone” attacks on 27 US military bases. The extent of the damage is not yet clear.
In its statement, the IRGC declared a wide-ranging offensive of missile and drone strikes targeting Israeli territory and American military bases in the region.
It said that 27 US military bases, along with Israel’s Tel Nof Airbase, the army’s command headquarters at HaKirya in Tel Aviv and a major defence industrial complex in the city, were all hit.
“This operation will continue relentlessly until the enemy is decisively defeated,” the IRGC said. “All US assets throughout the region are considered legitimate targets for Iran’s army.”
The statement declared that Iranian forces will “implement a different and harsh step of revenge, with successive, regrettable slaps.”
Black smoke was seen rising from a US airbase at Erbil International Airport in northern Iraq at sunrise, after the IRGC promised their most ferocious counterattack.
Erbil Air Base hosts a contingent of US troops, though the exact number remains unclear. They are in Iraq primarily to advise and assist Iraqi security forces.
A team on the ground in Dubai also reported hearing three loud blasts shortly after 8am on Sunday morning.
Residents in Doha, the capital of Qatar, reported hearing at least 11 explosions ringing through the skies above the city.
Two high-level military leaders — Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani and commander of the IRGC Major General Mohammad Pakpour — and four of Khamenei’s close family were also obliterated in the Tehran strikes on Saturday morning.
Pakpour had been appointed to lead the Guard after Israel killed its former commander in the 12-day June war.
Shamkhani, a veteran Iranian security official, had previously been wounded in the June war.
Iranian State news agency IRNA said on Sunday that Iran’s president, judiciary chief and a Guardian Council jurist will temporarily be in power to oversee transition following the Supreme Leader’s death.
Khamenei had held ultimate authority over Iran’s government, military, judiciary and major state institutions.
In the wake of his death, a temporary leadership council — made up of the president, the head of the judiciary and a jurist from the Guardian Council — will assume his duties until a new leader is formally selected.
Meanwhile, jubilant protesters inside Iran were seen toppling a statue of the Ayatollah in the early hours of Sunday, in celebration after he was killed by the bombardment.
At least 108 were killed in the US-Israeli airstrike on a girls’ school in the southern Iranian city of Minab on Saturday morning.
The majority of the dead are schoolgirls aged between seven and 12, according to the regime-controlled news outlets Tasnim and Fars.
There were 170 girls at the school at the time of the attack as Saturday is the first day of the working week in Iran.
Iranian state media IRIB shared a video showing at least eight body bags on the floor of a building following the deadly strike.
Footage shared on Telegram by accounts linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps showed citizens digging through the rubble and smoke rising from the school building.
A teacher at the school told an outlet that she saw bodies on classroom benches. She had stepped out when she heard the blast and returned to find carnage.
“I felt like I had gone mute. I couldn’t speak,” she said. “You could hear the sound of children crying and screaming.”
The local governor has declared Sunday a day of public mourning in the province.
Israel announced in the early hours of Sunday that it had begun a new “strike wave” targeting Iran’s ballistic missiles and aerial defence systems, after Iran launched drones and missiles at Tel Aviv, which were intercepted and shot down.
US Central Command confirmed they were also still attacking Iran at 8:30pm EST, posting a video of American ballistics striking what appeared to be Iranian weaponry.
Sirens have begun to blare across parts of Israel as the military warns of another potential Iranian attack.
Bahrain has issued a nationwide warning urging residents to take shelter as Iranian attacks continue across the country.
“The siren has been sounded,” the country’s Interior Ministry said. “Citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place.”
The United States Embassy in Bahrain issued a security alert urging Americans to avoid high-rise buildings.
“There are confirmed reports of high-rise buildings in Bahrain being struck by Iranian armed drones,” the embassy said.
“The US government has determined the broader Juffair area, and high-rise buildings in Bahrain, are not safe for US personnel.”
US President Trump announced on Truth Social on Saturday that Iran’s supreme leader was dead.
“This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS,” Trump posted.
Trump called on Iranians to “take back their country.”
“This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country,” Trump said.
“Hopefully, the IRGC and Police will peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots, and work together as a unit to bring back the Country to the Greatness it deserves.
“The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, 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!”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres noted the reports of the death of Iran’s supreme leader during his opening remarks at a UN Security Council session on Iran.
“The situation on the ground is very fluid. There are many unconfirmed reports,” Guterres said, adding that about 20 cities across Iran have reportedly been attacked.
“Large explosions were reported in the district that includes the Presidential Palace and the compound of the Supreme Leader.
“Several high-ranking officials have reportedly been killed, including, according to Israeli sources, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, whom I’m not in a position to confirm the situation.”
There was a tense atmosphere during the highly charged meeting between the Iranian ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, and his US counterpart, Mike Waltz.
“I have one word only: I advise the representative of the United States to be polite. It will be better for yourself and the country you represent,” Iravani said.
Waltz responded, saying, “I’m not going to dignify this with another response, especially as this representative sits here, in this body, representing a regime that has killed tens of thousands of its own people.”
Former US national security advisor John Bolton said the Trump administration should work with Iran’s opposition in the wake of their Supreme Leader’s death.
“I think the most important point right now is to maximize the extent of our cooperation and exchange of information with the opposition inside Iran,” he said.
On Khamenei’s death, Bolton said, “He deserved it.”
“That man and his regime were responsible for the deaths of thousands of American civilians and service members over the years,” he said.
“His government posed a direct threat to the United States by its pursuit of deliverable nuclear weapons and international terror unparalleled in history really.”
Former Israeli military intelligence chief Yossi Kuperwasser warned that the conflict with Iran would continue “for as long as it takes to topple the regime.”
Speaking from a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv, Kuperwasser described the reported killing as a turning point.
“This is a major development. Khamenei was the most important decision maker in Iran for many years,” he said.
“He represented the stubbornness and the commitment of Iran to pursue its policy of supporting terror and spreading extreme radical Islam.”
Discussing the current power vacuum at the top of the regime, Kuperwasser said: “There is no clear heir. They will have to decide who is going to lead, especially since other top figures were also killed.”
An American basketball player in Israel shared video of the terrifying moment she couldn’t find a nearby safe room as Iran launched missiles in retaliation.
Destiny Littleton, who has been playing basketball in Jerusalem, shared a video of her frantically trying to find safety in Israel with warning sirens blasting in the background.
“I don’t know if you guys can hear that, a siren is going off right now,” she said in the video. “This is the second siren of the day.”
Eventually, Littleton found the place she needed to be but as she filmed herself walking down the steps, a loud explosion was heard.
She later wrote on X that she was safe and that it sounded as if the explosions were slowing.
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