Iran’s state television along with news agencies such as Tasnim and Fars News today confirmed that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has died.

“The Supreme Leader of Iran has been martyred,” Iran’s IRIB television channel reported on the morning of March 1.

The Iranian government has declared 40 days of national mourning, with seven days of public holidays to be observed nationwide.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei waves to officials, diplomats, and citizens during a lecture in March 2025 in Tehran. Photo: AP

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died following a major attack by Israel and the United States, Iranian state media confirmed early Sunday, throwing the future of the Islamic Republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability.

President Donald Trump announced the death hours earlier, saying it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country.

Neither Iranian state television nor the state-run IRNA news agency reported a cause of death for the 86-year-old. State television described Khamenei as being at his compound in downtown Tehran when the initial attack began. Satellite photos from Airbus showed the site heavily bombed.

His death at his office “showed that he consistently stood among the people and at the forefront of his responsibilities, confronting what officials call global arrogance,” state TV said.

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote in a social media post. He warned of “heavy and pinpoint bombing” that he said would continue throughout the week and even beyond, part of a lethal assault the U.S. has justified as necessary to disable the country’s nuclear capabilities.

The attack opened a stunning new chapter in U.S. intervention in Iran, carried the potential for retaliatory violence and a wider war, and represented a startling flex of military might for an American president who swept into office on an “America First” platform and vowed to keep out of “forever wars.

The killing of Khamenei in the second Trump administration assault on Iran in eight months appeared certain to create a leadership vacuum given the absence of a known successor and because the 86-year-old supreme leader had final say on all major policies during his decades in power. He led Iran’s clerical establishment and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the two main centers of power in the governing theocracy.