Reuters. Iranian state media announced Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death, aged 86, early on Sunday (March1), in air strikes by Israel and the U.S. that pulverized his central Tehran compound, after decades of efforts to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program diplomatically failed.
Trump, making the biggest foreign-policy gamble of his presidency after campaigning for reelection as a "peace president," said the strikes were aimed at ending a decades-long threat from Iran and ensuring it could not develop a nuclear weapon.
Intelligence and tracking systems monitored Khamenei's whereabouts, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, adding that "there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do."
The late ayatollah leaves an Islamic Republic wrestling with uncertainty amid the attacks from Israel and the United States, as well as growing dissent at home, especially among younger generations.
