Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the United States, throwing the future of the Islamic Republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability.
Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early Sunday. U.S. President Donald Trump had announced his death hours earlier, saying it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country.
The announcements came after a joint U.S. and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” was to continue through the week or as long as necessary.
The strikes opened a stunning new chapter in U.S. intervention in Iran, marking the second time in eight months that the Trump administration has attacked the country during talks over its nuclear program. The killing of Khamenei after decades in power appeared certain to create a significant leadership vacuum given the absence of a known successor and because the supreme leader had final say on all major policies.
On Sunday, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to launch its “most-intense offensive operation” ever targeting Israel and U.S. bases.
Here is the latest:
President Javier Milei praised the joint operation carried out by the United States and Israel that resulted in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whom he described as “one of the most evil, violent, and cruel individuals in modern history.”
In his statement, Milei also recalled the 1994 attack on the Argentine Jewish community center, known as AMIA, in Buenos Aires. The bombing killed 85 people and injured hundreds, marking one of the deadliest attacks in the country’s history.
The president reaffirmed that pursuing justice for the victims of the AMIA bombing remains a state policy. “We will continue until the last person responsible pays with his freedom or his life for this horrific crime,” Milei said.
A Chinese organization is registering Chinese citizens in Iran for evacuation to neighboring countries, according to a media report.
More than 200 Chinese are scattered across Iran, Tan Kai, the president of the Iran Federation of Chinese Organizations, told the Global Times newspaper. The group is making evacuation preparations at the instruction of the Chinese Embassy, Tan said.
An embassy statement said the land borders with Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey were open for individuals wishing to depart on their own.
In Israel, the Chinese embassy advised citizens to move to safe areas away from the centers of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem and airports, power stations and similar sites. It said it would begin registering citizens on Sunday who wish to evacuate to Egypt and cannot do so on their own.
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and a top security adviser to the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were killed in American-Israel airstrikes on the country, state media reported Sunday.
The state-run IRNA news agency announced the death of Maj. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, who took over as the Guard’s top commander after Israel killed its past commander in the 12-day June war.
Also killed was Ali Shamkhani, long a figurehead within Iran’s security establishment, IRNA said. Shamkhani was wounded in the June war.
A council has formed to govern Iran after the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
That council is enshrined in law in the Islamic Republic. It is made up of Iran’s sitting president, the head of the country’s judiciary and a member of the Guardian Council chosen by Iran’s Expediency Council, which advises the supreme leader and settles disputes with parliament.
Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian and hard-line judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei are on it.
Iranian law says the Assembly of Experts “must, as soon as possible,” pick a new supreme leader.
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