US-Israel war on Iran: supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed, Iranian state media confirm – latest reports

Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei has been killed, state media confirms

Iranian state media has now reported that the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has indeed been killed.

40 days of public mourning will be observed in Iran after his death, state media reported.

Several hours ago, Donald Trump announced on social media that Khamenei had been killed in the US-Israeli strikes hit at least four buildings in the supreme leader’s compound in Tehran on Saturday morning.

That is now confirmed by the Tasnim and Fars news agencies.

Ali Khamenei meeting a group of officials, in Tehran on 8 March 2025. Photograph: AP

Khamenei had ruled Iran since 1989. You can read our profile of him here.

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US and Israel 'must be held accountable' for 'unlawful war', says Iran's UN ambassador

Earlier, Iran’s ambassador to the UN accused Donald Trump of lying about the justification of military strikes to “manufacture consent for unlawful war”.

Amir-Saeid Iravani also told the emergency UN Security Council meeting that Iran has the right to self-defense. He said:

All bases, facilities and assets of the hostile forces in the region shall be regarded as legitimate military objectives within the framework of Iran’s lawful exercise of self-defense.

He said that hundreds of civilians have been killed and injured in the US-Israeli operation, and called the strikes a war crime.

Israel and US have attacked Iran. They have violated international law and the charter of the United Nations. They must be held accountable.

The day so far

Donald Trump announced that Iran’s supreme leader had been killed in US-Israeli strikes launched on Tehran. The US president announced the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ruled Iran as supreme leader since 1989, in a post on Truth Social. “Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote. He said that the goal of the military campaign, which began on Saturday morning with a barrage of missiles and airstrikes, was regime change.

Iran has not confirmed Khamenei’s death, and denied earlier reports that he had been killed. The supreme leader had not been heard from since the strikes began, and satellite images have showed extensive damage and black smoke at Khamenei’s compound in Tehran. Iranian state media is reporting that his daughter, son-in-law and grandchild were killed.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, had earlier said there were “many signs” Khamenei was “no longer alive”, and Israeli officials briefed media that his body had been recovered.

The US-Israeli operation began with waves of air attacks across Iran and have plunged the Middle East into a new regional conflict with no certain timeline or outcome. Trump said heavy bombing on Iran will continue through the week or “as long as necessary”, and urged Iranians to “take back your country”. Netanyahu also urged Iranians to “seize the opportunity” to topple the regime.

More than 200 Iranians have been killed in the US-Israeli operation, and over 747 injured. At least 108 children were killed in an attack on an Iranian girls’ elementary school in Minab, southern Iran.

Israel identified seven Iranian officials it said it had killed, including Ali Shamkhani, adviser for security affairs; Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps; and Aziz Nasirzadeh, minister of defence. The IDF statement at that time did not make any mention of Khamenei.

In response to the attack, Iran unleashed retaliatory strikes, launching missiles and drones at US bases, including the headquarters of the US navy’s fifth fleet in Bahrain, Israeli residential areas, and targets in other Gulf countries including the Fairmont hotel in Dubai, a high-rise building and a naval base in Bahrain, Kuwait’s main airport, and Qatar. One person died and more than 21 were injured after a strike hit a residential building in Tel Aviv. Flights across the Middle East have been disrupted as countries across the region closed their airspaces, leaving hundreds of thousands of travellers stranded. Damage was sustained at Dubai’s international airport, while one person was killed and seven injured at Abu Dhabi’s international airport.

The US military said it had no reported casualties and minimal damage from Iran’s retaliatory strikes.

Iran war becomes an issue in Maine Senate race, as Susan Collins voices support while Graham Platner and Janet Mills condemn strikes

The US attack on Iran on Saturday quickly became a flashpoint in one of the most important political contests in the upcoming midterm elections, the effort to unseat the Republican senator from Maine, Susan Collins.

One of two Democrats hoping to run against Collins in November, Graham Platner, a military veteran, posted a series of messages denouncing the war on social media early Saturday.

“This war must end. Our Senators and Congressman must not know a moment’s peace until this ends,” he wrote.

“Young American men and women will die because Donald Trump is flailing politically. Let that sink in. I know the cost of war. I’ve watched friends die in war. This must end. If there ever was a time to use your power, it’s now,” Platner said in another message directed at Collins.

Platner then responded to a comment from John Fetterman, a Democratic senator from Pennsylvania who spoke in support of the attack. “A man who has never seen war and never will, cheering this on from a comfortable perch in Washington. Every Senator who fails to stop this war should lose their seat,” Platner wrote, “starting with” Collins and Fetterman.

Platner’s main rival for the Democratic nomination, Janet Mills, who is the state’s current governor, followed his lead and posted a statement denouncing the attack later in the day.

“Trump’s unilateral military action against Iran is recklessly pushing the United States into a dangerous conflict in the Middle East, putting the men and women of our military into harm’s way and ignoring the Constitutional imperative to consult Congress,” Mills chimed in. “This is yet another abuse of power from a president who constantly disregards the rule of law. The American people have had enough of forever wars that put the lives of our servicemembers and civilians in danger, that do not protect the American people, that hurt our alliances and escalate global tensions.”

Only much later in the day did Collins release a statement in which she supported the attack based in part on the baseless claim that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons.

“The Iranian regime’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, ballistic missile development, and support for terrorist proxies pose serious threats to America’s national security and that of our allies, as well as to stability in the Middle East. Our highly skilled and brave service members are in my prayers as they perform this mission,” Collins wrote.

“Sustained combat operations require full engagement with Congress,” she added, in a watered-down acknowledgement that Trump had, indeed, acted without congressional authorization. “There are important questions that will be discussed in the Senate’s classified briefings with Administration officials next week.”

Members of Khamenei's family killed in strikes, Iranian state media reports

Iranian state media is reporting that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s daughter, son-in-law and grandchild were killed in the US-Israeli strikes.

A reminder that there has still been no official confirmation from Tehran of the death of Khamenei himself.

Israel and US carrying out 'another wave of strikes'

The US and Israel has said it is carrying out “another wave of strikes” against “Iranian ballistic missile array and air defense systems”.

The strikes were aimed at targets in western and central Iran and included several launch sites which had not yet been struck, the IDF said in a statement to the BBC.

US sources confirmed to CBS that the United States was involved in that ongoing attack. The scope of the strikes and the areas being targeted were unclear.

The Iranian Mehr news agency subsequently reported two explosions in Tehran.

It comes several hours after Donald Trump announced that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in earlier strikes carried out by the US and Israel. Iran has not confirmed Khamenei’s death, and denied earlier Israeli media reports that he had been killed.

The US president said on social media that “heavy and pinpoint bombing” of Iran would “continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary”.

One dead at Abu Dhabi's Zayed international airport, authorities say

One person has been killed and seven injured at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed international airport, according to a statement from the airport in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

As the UAE is claiming to have successfully intercepted almost all of the drones and missiles fired at the country from Iran, the statement attributed the damage to “falling debris, which resulted in one fatality of an Asian national” after the interception of an attack drone.

Trump still plans to attend fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago as war rages in the Middle East

Donald Trump launched his regime change war on Iran from a makeshift situation room at his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, and, according to the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, he plans to continue with his social schedule for the evening, as missiles and drones rain down on countries across the Middle East.

“President Trump still intends to stop by the fundraiser being held at Mar-a-Lago this evening for the Republican party, which is more important than ever,” Leavitt told the pool reporters at Mar-a-Lago, who have not seen the president since he arrived at his resort on Friday evening.

Images of the makeshift secure area at the club, constructed by hanging black drapes around a conference area with a wood ceiling, were mocked on social networks as falling far short of the requirements for a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, where US officials typically discuss classified information.

“Calling it ‘the situation room at Mar-a-Lago’ doesn’t morph that blanket fort into a SCIF,” Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor turned podcaster, observed.

UAE defense ministry says it intercepted most of 346 missiles or drones fired at its territory by Iran

The United Arab Emirates said in a statement that it had intercepted the vast majority of the 137 missiles and 209 drones fired at its territory by Iran in the hours after the US and Israel launched a regime-change war on the Islamic republic.

According to the statement posted online by the UAE’s defense ministry, 132 missiles and 195 drones were successfully intercepted.

The UAE hosts about 5,000 US military personnel at al-Dhafra air base, just outside Abu Dhabi.

“The ministry expressed that it is on high alert and readiness to deal with any threats, and that it is taking all necessary measures to firmly confront everything that targets the disruption of the country’s security and stability, and affirmed that the safety of citizens, residents and visitors represents an utmost priority that cannot be compromised,” the ministry said in the statement posted on Instagram.

Marjorie Taylor Greene: ‘This is not what we thought MAGA was supposed to be. Shame!’

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former Republican congresswoman from Georgia, has denounced the attack on Iran as a betrayal of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement in a series of social media posts on Saturday.

“I did not campaign for this. I did not donate money for this. I did not vote for this, in elections or Congress. This is heartbreaking and tragic. And how many more innocent will die? What about our own military? This is not what we thought MAGA was supposed to be. Shame!” Greene wrote in one post, which included video of a ruined school, where dozens of children were killed in a strike according to Iranian authorities.

Greene, who broke with the president and resigned over her support for a law that required the justice department to release files from the investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender Trump socialized with for nearly two decades, also posted a longer statement denouncing the attack on X, illustrated by a screenshot of a Republican campaign plea from 2024 urging voters to “Vote the pro-peace ticket. Vote Trump-Vance”.

Above that image of the two men she campaigned for, Greene wrote:

We said “No More Foreign Wars, No More Regime Change!” We said it on rally stage after rally stage, speech after speech. Trump, Vance, basically the entire admin campaigned on it and promised to put America FIRST and Make America Great Again. My generation has been let down, abused, and used by our government our entire adult lives and our children’s generation is literally being abandoned. Thousands and thousands of Americans from my generation have been killed and injured in never ending pointless foreign wars and we said no more. But we are freeing the Iranian people. Please. There are 93 million people in Iran, let them liberate themselves. But Iran is on the verge of having nuclear weapons. Yeah sure. We have been spoon fed that line for decades and Trump told us all that his bombing this past summer completely wiped it all out. It’s always a lie and it’s always America Last. But it feels like the worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different and said no more.

Later in the day, Greene shared posts from other social media skeptics of the attack who noted that, even as Trump cited Iran’s nuclear program as a cause of war, the White House website still includes a page from last June headlined: “Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Have Been Obliterated — and Suggestions Otherwise are Fake News”, and argued that the attack was an attempt to distract the American people from the scandal of the president’s long friendship with the late ex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

One of the posts Green shared on Saturday read, in all-caps: “EVEN IF YOU START A NUCLEAR WAR, WE WILL CRAWL OUT OF THE ASHES AS SEVEN-LEGGED MUTANTS DEMANDING THE RELEASE OF THE EPSTEIN FILES.”

One person dead and 22 injured after Iranian strike on Tel Aviv

One person has died and 22 others are injured after an Iranian missile strike hit a building in Tel Aviv, according to media reports.

The Tel Aviv district’s fire and rescue commander said the building partially collapsed after the attack and that a fire had broken out, according to Haaretz. Eight people were reportedly rescued, and search efforts continue.