Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a series of military strikes on Tehran carried out by the United States and Israel, Iranian state media confirmed on Sunday. The attacks, which also claimed the lives of two senior military figures, followed vows from Washington and Tel Aviv to pursue regime change in the Islamic Republic.
The operation drew on intelligence from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which had tracked Khamenei for months and learned of a planned meeting of top Iranian officials on Saturday morning at a leadership compound in central Tehran, according to a report in the New York Times citing people familiar with the matter.
Originally scheduled for nighttime, the strikes were rescheduled based on this CIA information. The US shared the details with Israel, which then planned the assault on Iran’s leadership, the newspaper reported.
The strikes began around 6:00 local time in Israel, with long-range missiles hitting the compound at approximately 9:40. Senior national security officials were gathered in one building, while Khamenei was in an adjacent structure. In addition to Khamenei, the bombing killed General Mohammad Pakpour, chief of the Revolutionary Guards, and Ali Shamkhani, a top security adviser, as confirmed by Iran’s judiciary.
The military action coincided with a series of cyber operations. Israel hacked the popular Iranian prayer app BadeSaba Calendar, which assists Muslims in tracking prayer times and has been downloaded more than five million times from the Google Play store alone.
The hack sent notifications to potentially millions of devices on Saturday morning, urging Iranian military personnel to defect from the regime and join efforts to liberate the country, according to people familiar with the incident.
The notifications, written in Persian, included the message “help has arrived,” as shown in various screenshots shared on social media.
This app disruption formed part of a wider cyber campaign. Iranian state media reported that several news sites, including the state news agency IRNA, were hijacked to post content about the attacks that aimed to discredit the regime.
One message displayed on IRNA’s front page stated: “A terrifying hour for the security forces of the Ayatollahs’ regime; the IRGC and the Basij have suffered a crippling blow.”
In response, Iran has launched retaliatory strikes across the Gulf region, including in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi and near US military bases there, heightening fears of a broader regional conflict.
US President Donald Trump has stated that American military bombing will continue “as long as necessary.”