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LAST UPDATE | 3 hrs ago
IRANIAN STATE TV confirmed the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei overnight, with the regime unleashing a fresh series of attacks on US and Israeli targets in the region in the early hours of the morning.
A 40-day mourning period has been announced.
Khamenei’s death was announced by US President Donald Trump last night but Tehran had remained silent on the fate of its leader until the state TV broadcast, made at 5am local time.
Khamenei had been in power since 1989.
His compound in the heart of Tehran was destroyed yesterday morning as targets in the city were bombarded from the air.
“With the martyrdom of the supreme leader, his path and mission neither will be lost nor will be forgotten, on the other hand, they will be pursued with greater vigour and zeal,” a presenter said in the early morning broadcast.
Iranian media also reported the deaths of Khamenei’s daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. More than 200 people have been killed across Iran since yesterday morning in the coordinated US-Israeli attacks.
The Iranian Red Crescent said the death toll from a strike that hit a school in the country’s south had risen to 108 last night. Over 700 people have been injured in the wave of air strikes.
There have been reports of celebarations across the country in the wake of the official announcement of Khamenei’s death, alongside official pro-government events to mourn the leader’s passing.
Trump has warned the regime of force that’s “never been seen before” after he said the country indicated it was going to strike back “harder than they have ever hit”.
“THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform early today.
A new series of powerful blasts were heard this morning in Tehran, AFP journalists in the Iranian capital reported. The source of the blasts was not immediately clear.
Israel said it had carried out another round of attacks overnight, bombarding Iranian defence targets.
A second wave of explosions were also heard in Dubai this morning, as Iran carried out its retaliatory attacks across the Gulf.
Earlier blasts were heard in Dubai, Doha and the Bahraini capital Manama.
Israeli authorities said a woman had been killed and more than 20 others injured in an Iranian attack on the city of Tel Aviv in what marks the first death of the current conflict in Israel.
Air transport has been severely disrupted across the Middle East since yesterday. Irish citizens currently in the Gulf region have been advised to shelter in place and follow the directions of local authorities and Irish embassies.
A key figure in Iran’s Islamic Republic since the revolution in 1979, Khamenei was a trusted confidant of the first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, before being elevated to the role himself following Khomeini’s death.
He remained in power after overcoming 1999 student demonstrations, 2009 mass protests sparked by disputed presidential elections and 2019 demonstrations that were brutally suppressed.
He also survived the 2022-2023 ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement sparked by the death in custody of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. Khamenei was forced to go into hiding during the 12-day war against Israel in June last year which led to the killing of key security officials in air strikes.
But he survived that conflict and managed to cling onto power despite another round of mass protests across Iran at the start of this year.
His three-and-a-half decade rule was defined by relentless anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-Western policies and led one of the most repressive regimes on the planet, becoming a hate figure for much of the population in the process.
He presided over a deadly crackdown on his own people just last month, publicly acknowledging that thousands had been killed during protests against the regime.
It’s estimated over 3,000 died during the uprisings. Defiant as ever, he said some of the protesters had been killed in an “inhuman, savage” manner – but insisted the US was to blame.
- With reporting by AFP
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