Official media outlets in Iran confirmed early Sunday morning that the country’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was eliminated in joint strikes by the US and Israel.
The reports stated that “Khamenei was assassinated in his office during the morning hours on Saturday."
In addition, 40 days of mourning were declared following the death of the Supreme Leader.
The Iranian news agency Nour News subsequently confirmed that Khamenei’s top adviser, Ali Shamkhani, and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammad Pakpour, were also eliminated in the strikes.
The Tasnim news agency reported that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, and a member of the Guardian Council will lead Iran during the transitional period following Khamenei’s death.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump confirmed that Khamenei had been eliminated in the strikes on Iran.
"He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
US sources told the Reuters news agency on Saturday night that Israel and the United States timed their strike on Iran to coincide with a meeting being held by Khamenei with senior aides.
Khamenei was eliminated along with other senior Iranian officials, including Ali Shamkhani, the former secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, and Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Two Iranian sources told Reuters that Khamenei met on Saturday with Shamkhani and Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani at a secure location shortly before the strikes began.
One US source said Khamenei had originally been expected to hold the meeting on Saturday evening in Tehran. However, Israeli intelligence detected a meeting on Saturday morning, prompting the strikes to be moved forward, the sources said.