A confirmation of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s conferral with his top advisers put the Israeli-US air and naval operation against Tehran into motion, reported Reuters citing sources.
The US official said the attack needed to strike Khamenei first to maintain the element of surprise, reported Reuters, suggesting there was concern the Iranian leader would escape into hiding if he had the opportunity.
Khamenei had originally been expected to hold the meeting on Saturday evening in Tehran, a US sources told the news agency.
But Israeli intelligence detected a meeting on Saturday morning, and the strikes were moved forward, the agency said.
The location of the meeting was not immediately clear.
But Khamenei’s high-security compound in Tehran was struck at the beginning of the operation, and satellite imagery confirmed that it had been destroyed, marking an inflexion point in the 46-year Shia-theocratic rule, as Tehran’s retaliation set off conflagrations in a swath of the Middle East.
As soon as the US-Israel attack began, Tehran retaliated with a fusillade of drones and missiles against Israel, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates UAE), Jordan, and Kuwait.
Trump unleashed the attack shortly after midnight in Washington — and daytime in Iran — two days after inconclusive negotiations in Geneva facilitated by Oman.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has vowed to punish the “murderers” of Khamenei and promised that the response will be the “most ferocious offensive operation in history” against the US and Israel.
In a statement posted on its official Telegram page, the IRGC said, “The hand of revenge of the Iranian nation for a severe, decisive and regrettable punishment for the murderers of the Imam of the Ummah will not let go of them.”
Israel said Khamenei was killed along with top lieutenants including Ali Shamkhani, the powerful former National Security Council secretary, and Mohammad Pakpour, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander.
Two Iranian sources told Reuters that Khamenei met on Saturday with Shamkhani and Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani at a secure location shortly before the strikes started.
Ali Larijani survived the attack and vowed defiance.
“The brave soldiers and the great nation of Iran will teach an unforgettable lesson to the international oppressors,” he said.
Iranian state television confirmed the news of Khamenei’s death in the early hours of Sunday, broadcasting archive images with a black banner.
Iranian media also reported the deaths of his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump had said hours before on his Truth Social platform.
Ayatollah Khamenei was the successor to the Revolution’s founder, Ruhollah Khomeini. Since 1989, his “story” was one of unwavering defiance against Western influence.
His death is being portrayed by state media as the Martyrdom of the Guardian, framing his end not as a defeat, but as a final sacrifice for the sovereignty of the nation.
The official Farsi account of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei acknowledged his death and posted a verse from the Quran on X in the early hours of Sunday. As per Tasnim News, Khamenei was killed while at the workplace in the early hours of Sunday.
Iran was convulsed last month by public protests sparked by inflation that defied the regime but was brutally put down by the government, reportedly killing thousands.
(With inputs from Reuters)