Iran’s supreme leader Khamenei ‘gone’ – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjam | World | News

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there are growing signs that Iran’s supreme leader is ‘gone.’ BBC Verify says it obtained satellite imagery taken over Tehran this morning appearing to show significant damage to part of the Leadership House complex – the office of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The high-resolution image, captured by Airbus, shows blackened buildings, debris and smoke rising from the site, and matches verified footage filmed in the area after explosions. Conflicting reports have since emerged over Khamenei’s fate. Reuters, citing a senior Israeli official, reported his body had been found, while Axios said Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, had told US officials he was killed in the strike. Israeli outlets including Channel 12 and the Times of Israel have also carried similar claims. A senior Israeli government source has also claimed theSupreme Leader was killed in the strikes, according to a report by The Independent. “They just got his (Khamenei’s) body out of his home,” they added.

Iranian officials have rejected the reports however, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on ABC News the supreme leader was “safe and sound”, while Seyyed Mehrdad Seyyed Mahdi, head of public relations at Khamenei’s office, said the reports were “psychological warfare”.

BBC Persian said sources in Tehran described people in several neighbourhoods cheering and sounding car horns after reports circulated that Khamenei had been killed, though there is still no independent confirmation of his fate.

Earlier, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News the country “may have lost one or two commanders”, but added that, to the best of his knowledge, Khamenei was alive.

There has been no independent confirmation of the supreme leader’s fate, and the situation remains unclear as information from inside Iran continues to be limited.

In a video statement, Netanyahu said Israeli-US strikes had destroyed part of Khamenei’s compound, claiming: “This morning we destroyed the compound of the tyrant Khamenei,” and adding there were “many signs that this tyrant is no longer.”

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He also said Israel had “eliminated senior officials in the ayatollahs’ regime, Revolutionary Guards commanders, senior figures in the nuclear programme,” and warned: “In the next few days, we will hit thousands more targets of the terror regime.

The Israeli and US assault on Iran began on Saturday morning, with some of the earliest strikes targeting areas near offices used by Khamenei, who was reportedly moved to a secure location beforehand.

Israeli-linked sources cited by international media said Iran’s Defence Minister Amir Nasirzadeh and Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammad Pakpour were believed to be among those killed, although this has not been independently confirmed.

Iran International also reported four senior intelligence figures – Javad Pourhossein, Mohammad-Reza Bajestani, Ali Kheirandish and Saeed Ehya Hamidi – were killed in the strikes, while Reuters said at least three members of the IRGC-linked Basij paramilitary force were reported dead.

Iran’s security authorities meanwhile urged residents of Tehran and other major cities to remain in protected locations as the situation continued to unfold, as communications disruptions made information from inside the country difficult to verify.