Khamenei killed in US-Israeli strikes, Trump calls it Iran’s ‘greatest chance’

In a dramatic and potentially transformative moment for the Middle East, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been killed in coordinated US-Israeli airstrikes, according to Iranian state media, marking what could be one of the most consequential geopolitical developments in decades.

Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency, citing informed sources on Sunday, reported that four of Khamenei’s close relatives were also killed in the strikes. Among them were his daughter, a grandchild and his son-in-law, underscoring the devastating personal toll of the operation that allegedly targeted the supreme leader’s inner circle.

The announcement followed an explosive declaration by US President Donald Trump, who took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to proclaim that Khamenei had been eliminated in a joint military operation conducted with Israel. Trump described the killing as the “single greatest chance” for the Iranian people to reclaim their nation’s destiny.

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in history, is dead,” Trump wrote, casting the strike as an act of retribution. He framed it as “Justice for the people of Iran” and for “all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”

In his statement, Trump asserted that the Iranian leader had been unable to evade “our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems”, claiming close operational coordination with Israel. According to Trump, there was “not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do” to avoid the strike.

The president further alleged that the operation had triggered fractures within Iran’s security establishment. “We are hearing that many of their IRGC, military, and other security and police forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking for immunity from us,” he wrote, referring to Iran’s powerful revolutionary guard. Reiterating an earlier warning, he added starkly: “Now they can have Immunity, later they only get death!”

Trump also claimed that beyond the killing of Khamenei, the country itself had suffered extensive damage in the assault. “Not only the death of Khamenei but the country has been, in only one day, very much destroyed and, even, obliterated,” he said, in language that signaled the scale and intensity of the strikes.

Before Trump’s declaration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had hinted at the possibility of Khamenei’s demise. While stopping short of an explicit confirmation, Netanyahu said there were “many signs indicating Khamenei is no longer,” adding that “Khamenei’s compound was destroyed.”

If confirmed independently, the death of Iran’s supreme leader would send shockwaves through the Islamic Republic’s political and religious establishment, potentially reshaping power structures in Tehran and recalibrating the balance of power across the region. As global capitals watch closely, the implications of this unprecedented development remain vast, volatile and deeply uncertain.