IRANIAN STATE TV confirmed the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei overnight, with the regime unleashing a fresh series of attacks on US and Israeli targets in the early hours of the morning.
A 40-day mourning period has been announced.
Khamenei’s death was announced by US President Donald Trump last night but Tehran had remained silent on the fate of its leader until the state TV broadcast, made at 5am local time.
Khamenei had been in power since 1989. His compound in the heart of Iran was destroyed yesterday morning as targets in the city were bombarded from the air.
“With the martyrdom of the supreme leader, his path and mission neither will be lost nor will be forgotten, on the other hand, they will be pursued with greater vigour and zeal,” a presenter said in the early morning broadcast.
A key figure in Iran’s Islamic Republic since the revolution in 1979, Khamenei was a trusted confidant of the first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, before being elevated to the role himself following Khomeini’s death.
He remained in power after overcoming 1999 student demonstrations, 2009 mass protests sparked by disputed presidential elections and 2019 demonstrations that were brutally suppressed.
He also survived the 2022-2023 ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement sparked by the death in custody of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. Khamenei was forced to go into hiding during the 12-day war against Israel in June last year which led to the killing of key security officials in air strikes.
But he survived that conflict and managed to cling onto power despite another round of mass protests across Iran at the start of this year.
His three-and-a-half decade rule was defined by relentless anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-Western policies and led one of the most repressive regimes on the planet, becoming a hate figure for much of the population in the process.
He presided over a deadly crackdown on his own people just last month, publicly acknowledging that thousands had been killed during protests against the regime.
It’s estimated over 3,000 died during the uprisings. Defiant as ever, he said some of the protesters had been killed in an “inhuman, savage” manner – but insisted the US was to blame.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
