Trump: Iran’s supreme leader dead; bombing to continue

(AP) — United States President Donald Trump said on social media that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead, describing his passing as “the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country.”

There was no immediate confirmation from Iranian authorities.

The death occurred after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment Saturday that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites, significantly escalating hostilities in the Middle East region.

The president also said “heavy and pinpoint bombing” was to continue “uninterrupted” through the week or longer.

Trump in his post called Khamenei “one of the most evil people in history.”

Trump said that Khamenei “was unable to avoid our intelligence and highly sophisticated tracking systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do.”

The development comes amid heightened regional tensions following the strikes, which have prompted retaliatory missile and drone attacks by Iran and raised fears of a wider Middle East conflict.

Earlier, Jamaica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade urged Jamaicans in the region to shelter in place and advised citizens to avoid all travel to the Middle East as the situation unfolds.

Khamenei, 86, succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He had the final say on all major policies, leading Iran’s clerical establishment and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard – the two main centers of power in the country’s theocracy.

As the attack on Iran unfolded, President Trump urged the Iranian public to “seize control of your destiny” by rising up against the Islamic leadership. In a video announcing the “major combat operations,” Trump told Iranians that “when we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”

Iranian state media, citing the Red Crescent, on Saturday evening said at least 201 people had been killed and more than 700 injured. Iran retaliated by firing missiles and drones toward Israel and US military bases in the region, and exchanges of fire continued into the night.

Some of the first strikes on Iran appeared to hit near Khamenei's offices . Before Israeli officials confirmed the death, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News that Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian were alive “as far as I know." He called the attack “unprovoked, illegal and absolutely illegitimate.”

The strikes during the holy fasting month of Ramadan opened a stunning new chapter in US intervention in Iran, marking the second time in eight months that the Trump administration has attacked the Islamic Republic during talks over its nuclear program.

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