Trump says Iran’s Khamenei is dead
US President Donald Trump said that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed as US and Israeli strikes hit the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Saturday.
"Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Khamenei, 86, has ruled Iran for more than three decades, consolidating clerical authority, shaping the country’s political and military institutions, and steering its confrontations with the West, making him one of the most consequential figures in the region.
"This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country," Trump added in the post, calling on Iran's police and security forces to lay down arms and "peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots."
After an initial barrage of US and Israeli strikes across the country Saturday morning, Iran responded by hitting targets throughout the Gulf and in Israel later in the day, in a confrontation that has already left more than 100 casualties across the region.
Iranian state media reported that at least 57 people were killed in a strike on a school in Minab, located in the southern Hormozgan Province. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said senior commanders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps may have been among the dead. Fatalities were also reported in the United Arab Emirates and Syria. Targets included Kuwait’s airport and a hotel in Dubai, as Iran attacked several facilities housing US troops. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Syria, Israel, and Jordan were also affected.
Ships near the Strait of Hormuz received a message purportedly from the IRGC warning that vessels would not be allowed to transit the waterway, Reuters reported.
Trump announced early Saturday that the US military had begun “major combat operations” in Iran, as explosions were heard in the capital, Tehran.
In an eight-minute video posted on Truth Social, Trump described the campaign as a response to Iran’s decades-long hostility. “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground … we are going to annihilate their navy … and we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon,” he said. Addressing the Iranian people, he added: “Take over your government; it will be yours to take.”
Trump acknowledged that Americans could die in the conflict, saying, “The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties.”
Shortly before Trump’s remarks, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed that Israel was carrying out strikes in Iran and declared a nationwide state of emergency as the country prepared for retaliation. Air raid sirens sounded across Israel multiple times on Saturday, with the military urging residents to brace for possible incoming missile fire.
Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, reported that around 20 provinces had been targeted by US and Israeli military action.