Feb 28 (Reuters) - Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday.
"Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead," Trump said on Truth Social, without elaborating on the source of the information.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
President Donald Trump made his case for war against Iran early on Saturday as US and Israeli forces bombed the Islamic republic, saying conflict was required to eliminate "imminent threats" from Tehran.
Iran "rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions," Trump said in a roughly eight-minute video message posted on social media more than an hour after US strikes began.
Feb 28 (Reuters) - Crossings into the Gaza Strip, vital for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the movement of patients in need of medical evacuation, were closed on Saturday as Israeli and U.S. forces attacked Iran, the Israeli government agency COGAT said.
The closures included the Rafah crossing, located at the Palestinian territory's southern border with Egypt, which was only reopened at the beginning of February to allow a trickle of Palestinians to cross for the first time in months, including patients in need of urgent medical care.
Feb 28 (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who turned the country into a powerful anti-U.S. force and extended its military influence across the Middle East while crushing repeated domestic unrest, was killed in Israeli and U.S. strikes, a senior Israeli official told Reuters on Saturday.
There was no immediate Iranian confirmation of his fate.
By Samia Nakhoul
DUBAI, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Thunderous blasts and towering fireballs from Iranian missiles streaking across Gulf states vindicated their leaders' long-held fears that Tehran can bring war to their doorstep, likely to harden Arab rulers' support for U.S.–Israeli strikes.
JERUSALEM, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that there were many signs suggesting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have been killed in Israeli-U.S. strikes in Iran.
"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".
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By Alexander Cornwell
TEL AVIV, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Saturday that he backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to strike Iran, describing the campaign as a "just war against evil"
The U.S. and Israel launched a series of strikes on Iran, targeting senior leaders and calling for the overthrow of its government, sparking a wave of Iranian missile barrages fired at Israel and Gulf countries including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
The US-Israeli strikes launched on Iran Saturday could become an extended operation, with strategic goals both multiple and complex -- aiming to decapitate the Islamic republic and eviscerate its security capabilities.
In the 12-day war in June last year, the Israelis, backed by the Americans, carried out targeted strikes aimed at destroying key Iranian nuclear sites.
This time "we are embarking on an operation that is unfolding on a completely different scale, more complex and more complicated" than in June, Israel's army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir warned.
On a visit to Texas on Friday, US President Donald Trump gave a raucous speech on the economy and then stopped off at a fast food joint.
"Hamburgers for everyone!" Trump declared to cheering customers at the Whataburger restaurant in Corpus Christi, before the 47th president left clutching a bag with the order number 47.
Nine hours later, in the dead of night, Trump announced from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that he had ordered the start of a major attack against Iran.
MILAN, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto was stuck in Dubai with his family on Saturday as flights were suspended after U.S and Israeli attacks on Iran, a source close to the ministry said on Saturday.
The minister left Rome on Friday evening aboard a civilian flight to join his family, already in Dubai on holiday. He was scheduled to return to Italy on Saturday afternoon.
The Italian carrier ITA Airways said it had suspended flights to and from Dubai until Sunday.
(Reporting by Cristina Carlevaro; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
