United States President Donald Trump, on Saturday confirmed that the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and 40 top military and civilian leaders were killed in the airstrikes launched by the US and Israel against Iran.
Trump also announced that the members of the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were seeking immunity from the United States.
The US and Israel had earlier on Saturday launched a major attack on Iran, with President Trump urging the Iranian public to “seize control of your destiny” by rising against the Islamic leadership that has ruled the nation since 1979.
In retaliation, Iran also launched attacks on Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, and other countries with the US’ military bases or that are allies of the US, in response to the strikes across its territory.
The US reportedly has about 13 military bases across the Middle East, with 30,000 to 40,000 troops usually deployed between them.
While the US and Israel were demanding regime change in Iran, Tehran had also retaliated with airstrikes on US allies in the Middle East.
Reuters reported that the attacks forced much of the Middle East’s airspace to shut down, with reverberations across the globe.
At least eight countries, including Iran, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, closed their airspace.
Syria also announced it had closed part of its airspace in the south along its border with Israel for 12 hours.
The attack on Iran had prompted Tehran to call for an emergency meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog, while the European Union foreign ministers would hold “extraordinary” talks today.
Meanwhile, oil prices will likely rise sharply when trading opens on Monday morning, as Tehran has repeatedly threatened to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil export channel and a critical maritime corridor connecting oil-producing countries in the Middle East to the rest of the world.
Trump confirmed on Saturday afternoon that Khamenei was killed in the airstrikes.
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in history, is dead,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”
The US President said the supreme leader 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.”
“This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country,” the president wrote.
“We are hearing that many of their IRGC, military, and other security and police forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking for immunity from us. As I said last night, ‘Now they can have Immunity, later they only get Death!'”
Trump said he hopes the IRGC and police will “peacefully merge” with Iranian patriots to stabilize the country.
“That process should soon be starting in that, not only the death of Khamenei but the Country has been, in only one day, very much destroyed and, even, obliterated,” he wrote. “The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of peace throughout the Middle East and indeed, the world”.
Israel said its opening strikes decimated the chain of command — killing seven senior defence and intelligence officials and targeting 30 top military and civilian leaders overall.
Others confirmed killed include: Khamenei’s top security adviser, Ali Shamkhani; IRGC Commander, Mohammad Pakpour; Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh; Khamenei’s Chief Military Secretary, Mohammad Shirazi and Head of Iranian Military Intelligence, Saleh Asadi.
Similarly, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had also called on Iranians to ‘take to the streets en masse’ to topple the country’s regime.
Netanyahu had also said there were strong indications that Iran’s Supreme Leader had been killed in an attack on his compound as part of US-Israeli strikes.
“This morning, in a powerful surprise strike, the compound of the tyrant Ali Khamenei was destroyed in the heart of Tehran… and there are many signs that this tyrant is no longer alive,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement.
The Chairman of the SPND (Iran’s nuclear weapons research organisation), Hossein Jabal Amelian and former SPND Chairman, Reza Mozaffari-Nia, were also eliminated.
However, a report said one senior official who survived is Ali Larijani —Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, former parliament speaker and one of Khamenei’s closest confidants.
More than 250 people were reportedly killed across Iran.
An Iranian official was quoted as saying that 85 people were killed after a strike hit a girls’ school.
Emmanuel Addeh
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