Iranian supreme leader killed in Israel and US attack

已複製連結

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in 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.

Iranian state media reported that the 86-year-old was killed in an airstrike targeting his compound in downtown Tehran. Satellite photos from Airbus showed that the site was 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.

Iran, which responded to the strikes with its own counterassault, warned of retribution, with the Cabinet saying that this "great crime will never go unanswered." The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to launch its "most intense offensive operation" ever targeting Israeli and American bases.

The attack opened a stunning new chapter in U.S. intervention in Iran, carried the potential for retaliatory violence and a wider war.

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 the Revolutionary Guard, the two main centers of power in the governing theocracy.

State media also reported the deaths of the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and a top security adviser to Khamenei in airstrikes. Maj. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour took over as the Guard's top commander after Israel killed its past commander in the 12-day war last June. The adviser, Ali Shamkhani, had long been a figurehead within Iran's security establishment, IRNA said.

As reports trickled out about Khamenei's death, eyewitnesses in Tehran told The Associated Press that some residents were rejoicing, cheering from rooftops, blowing whistles and letting out ululations.

Mourners raised a black mourning flag over the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city and a major pilgrimage site for Shiite Muslims. The Iranian government declared 40 days of public mourning and a seven-day nationwide public holiday to commemorate Khamenei's death.

Citing unidentified sources, the semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to the Revolutionary Guard, reported that several relatives of Khamenei were also killed, including a daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and grandchild.

The joint US-Israel operation, which officials say was planned for months, took place Saturday during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan and at the start of the Iranian workweek. It followed stilted negotiations and warnings from Trump, who last year trumpeted his administration's success in incapacitating the country's nuclear program but nonetheless cast the latest round as necessary to head off its potential resurgence.

About 12 hours after the attacks began, the US military reported no US casualties and minimal damage at US  Middle East regional bases despite "hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks." It said targets in Iran included Revolutionary Guard command facilities, air defense systems, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields.

Israel, for its part, said it had killed the commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the country's defense minister, as well as the secretary of the Iranian Security Council, a close adviser to Khamenei.