UPDATE: Iran’s supreme leader has been killed, Trump says
Published 5:38 pm Saturday, February 28, 2026
A major attack launched by Israel and the United States killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Donald Trump said Saturday, announcing an assassination that he said gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country but that also put the future of the Islamic Republic in doubt and raised the risk of regional instability.
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote in a social media post. He warned of “heavy and pinpoint bombing” that he said would continue throughout the week and even beyond, part of a lethal assault the U.S. has justified as necessary to disable the country’s nuclear capabilities.
Iran did not immediately confirm the death.
The attack opened a stunning new chapter in U.S. intervention in Iran and carried the potential for retaliatory violence in the Middle East and elsewhere. It also represented a startling flex of military might for an American president who swept into office on an “America First” platform and vowed to keep out of “forever wars.”
If confirmed, the killing of Khamenei in the second Trump administration assault on Iran in eight months, appeared certain to create a leadership vacuum given the absence of a known successor and because the 86-year-old supreme leader had final say on all major policies during his decades in power. He led Iran’s clerical establishment and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the two main centers of power in the governing theocracy.
As reports trickled out about the death, eyewitnesses in Tehran told The Associated Press that some residents were rejoicing, blowing whistles and letting out ululations.
Iran, which responded to the strikes with its own counterassault, warned of retribution.
