Ayatollah Ali Khamenei\u2019s death confirmed by state media in Iran as Trump urges citizens to \u2018take back\u2019 their country<\/p>\n
Latest updates \u2013 news of Khamenei\u2019s death spreads around the world<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n A visual guide to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran \u2013 and Tehran\u2019s response<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n War on Iran: how the US-Israeli bid for regime change unfolded<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Iran\u2019s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack <\/a>by Israel and the US<\/strong>, Iranian state media confirmed early on Sunday, throwing the future of the Islamic Republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump announced the death hours earlier<\/strong>, saying it gave Iranians their \u201cgreatest chance\u201d to \u201ctake back\u201d their country.<\/p>\n State media reported that Khamenei, 86, was killed in an airstrike targeting his compound in downtown Tehran.<\/strong> Satellite photos from Airbus showed that the site was heavily bombed. His death at his office \u201cshowed that he consistently stood among the people and at the forefront of his responsibilities, confronting what officials call global arrogance\u201d, state TV said.<\/p>\n Iran, which responded to the strikes with its own counterassault, warned of retribution<\/strong>, with the cabinet saying this \u201cgreat crime will never go unanswered\u201d. The paramilitary Revolutionary Guards threatened to launch its \u201cmost intense offensive operation\u201d ever targeting Israeli and American bases.<\/p>\n The <\/strong>Iranian president, yjr head of the judiciary and one of the jurists of Iran<\/a>\u2019s Guardian Council, a 12-member body that vets laws, will temporarily assume leadership duties<\/strong>, the Islamic Republic news agency has reported.<\/p>\n State media also reported the deaths of the head of Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards and a top security adviser to Khamenei in airstrikes.<\/strong><\/p>\n As reports trickled out about Khamenei\u2019s death, eyewitnesses in Tehran told the Associated Press that some residents were rejoicing<\/strong>, cheering from rooftops, blowing whistles and letting out ululations. Mourners raised a black mourning flag over the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran\u2019s second-largest city and a major pilgrimage site for Shiite Muslims. The Iranian government declared 40 days of public mourning and a seven-day nationwide public holiday to commemorate Khamenei\u2019s death.<\/p>\n Citing unidentified sources, the semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to the Revolutionary Guards, reported that several relatives of Khamenei were also killed<\/strong>, including a daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and grandchild.<\/p>\n Khamenei was killed <\/strong>during a wave of strikes by Israel and the US on Iran on Saturday morning.<\/strong> Iran\u2019s Red Crescent reported more than 200 deaths and 747 injuries in daylong attacks across 24 provinces.<\/p>\n In response, Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones<\/strong>, targeting US troops in the region and cities in Israel and Arab countries allied with Washington. Dubai\u2019s international airport and its landmark Burj Al Arab hotel sustained damage and four people were injured. Abu Dhabi Airports said in a post on X that an incident at Zayed international airport in the UAE\u2019s capital resulted in one fatality involving an Asian national and seven injuries. It later deleted the post.<\/p>\n Israel said it had launched another wave of strikes on Iran on Sunday <\/strong>targeting Iran\u2019s ballistic missile and air defence systems. Iranian state media said an explosion was heard in Tehran on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n In a statement early on Sunday, Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards said the country\u2019s armed forces soon would retaliate again<\/strong> with their biggest offensive operation ever at US bases and Israel.<\/p>\n Hundreds of thousands of travellers have been stranded or diverted to other airports<\/a> after Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait<\/strong> and Bahrain<\/strong> closed their airspace after the US-Israel war on Iran began.<\/p>\n Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei\u2019s death confirmed by state media in Iran as Trump urges citizens to \u2018take back\u2019 their country Latest updates \u2013 news of Khamenei\u2019s death spreads around the world A visual guide to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran \u2013 and Tehran\u2019s response War on Iran: how the US-Israeli bid for regime change unfolded Iran\u2019s … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}