Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed in US-Israeli strikes

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on Saturday after the US and Israel launched massive aerial strikes on the capital Tehran.

An announcer appearing on state television broke down in tears early on Sunday as he confirmed the killing, saying the 86-year-old “achieved his long cherished wish of martyrdom in the holy month of Ramadan.”

“Today, Iran, the Islamic nations and freedom seekers across the world are grieving the evil attacks by the criminal Americans and wicked Zionists,” he said.

“The martyrdom of a personality of such great stature will begin a great uprising in the fight against the world’s oppressors,” he added.

The semi-official Fars news agency, which has links to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported that Khamenei’s daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter were also killed in the strikes.

“After establishing contact with informed sources in the supreme leader’s household, the news of the martyrdom of the daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter of the revolutionary leader has unfortunately been confirmed,” it said.

Satellite imagery seen by Middle East Eye showed widespread destruction at the supreme leader’s compound after videos posted on social media showed black smoke billowing from the area.

The Tasnim News Agency reported that Khamenei was killed while working in his office. Two Iranian sources, however, told the Reuters news agency that Khamenei had met with Ali Shamkhani, the powerful former National Security Council secretary, and Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of the IRGC, at a secure location shortly before the strikes started.

It was unclear whether Shamkhani or Pakpour survived Saturday’s attacks.

Following Sunday’s announcement, the Supreme National Security Council vowed to avenge Khamenei’s “martyrdom,” which it said “opened a new chapter of ruling in Islam’s history”.

US President Donald Trump had earlier announced the killing, saying that Khamenei’s killing had delivered justice not only “for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans”.

“He [Khamenei] 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 said in a lengthy post on his Truth Social Platform.

“This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country,” Trump added.

The US president then claimed that many of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, military and other security and police forces “no longer want to fight”, suggesting he would now be willing to give them “immunity”.

Significantly, the US president also said that “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue “uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective”.

Who was Khamenei?

Khamenei was a key figure in Iranian political life for more than 40 years, and the country’s political and religious figurehead since 1989.

During that time he presided over a nation that underwent significant social and political change, and repositioned itself in the wider world.

Born into a clerical family on 19 April 1939, he undertook religious training at seminaries in the holy city of Mashhad, as well as Najaf in Iraq.

He returned to Iran and eventually settled in Qom, where he furthered his clerical studies under figures including Ayatollah Hossein Borujerdi and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was later to become the supreme leader.

During the 1960s and 1970s he participated in covert activities against the Shah, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, for which he was arrested and tortured multiple times by the Savak secret police.

In 1979, the Shah was overthrown after popular protests.

Khomeini, who had been in exile since the mid-1960s, returned to Tehran from France amid jubilant crowds and widespread support.

How did Khamenei rise to power?

Khamenei quickly ascended through the ranks of the early revolutionary state, assuming key roles on the Islamic Revolutionary Council, as well as a lawmaker and deputy defence minister. He also led Friday prayers in Tehran.

Khamenei was also one of the leading revolutionary figures targeted in assassination attempts in 1981, when a bomb hidden in a nearby tape recorder exploded as he was addressing a mosque. The attack was attributed to the anti-clerical opposition Forqan Group. Khamenei suffered serious injuries and was left paralysed in his right arm.

After President Mohammad Ali Raja’i and Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar were assassinated in August 1981 by the dissident Mujahedin-e Khalq (People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran), Khamenei ran for the presidency, winning 95 percent of votes in an uncontested election.

He was publicly backed by the three other candidates, one of whom, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, was to become prime minister. Khamenei sought to cement the clerical establishment’s control of the key organs of power, often clashing with more left-leaning figures, including Mousavi.

Khamenei’s foreign policy focused initially on managing Iran’s eight-year conflict with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, during which an estimated one million civilians and troops died on both sides.

In September 1987, Khamenei attacked the US presence in the region at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “Our message to Third World governments is that as long as the order of domination and the current situation exists, they should try to create unity among themselves: this is the best way to become powerful.”

Who will succeed Khamenei?

Speculation is rife around who might become his successor with some pointing to a possible dynastic succession involving his son, Mojtaba.

With reformist and even pragmatic conservative voices increasingly sidelined in Iranian politics, it seems most likely that Khamenei’s successor will come from the harder end of the conservative camp, although the appeal of more unifying candidates being involved in the process cannot be discounted.

Whatever happens, the role of the IRGC will be key, given the huge political and economic power it wields. It is no surprise that one of Khamenei’s key achievements has been the role that he has permitted the IRGC to assume for itself in Iran’s domestic politics and foreign policy.

Regionally, the IRGC has been the primary actor in reinforcing and expanding Iran’s strategic depth, playing a major role in shoring up its national security, while entrenching its position domestically.