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United States President Donald Trump says Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead after Israeli-US attacks on Iran.
Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform that 86-year-old Khamenei was killed in the joint US-Israeli strikes, which began early on Saturday.
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“He 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,” the US president wrote.
“This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country,” he said. “Hopefully, the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and Police will peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots.”
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed there were “growing signs” that Khamenei had been killed.
Additionally, the Reuters news agency, citing an unnamed senior Israeli official, reported that Khamenei’s body has been located.
But Iran’s Tasnim and Mehr news agencies reported that Khamenei remained “steadfast and firm in commanding the field”.
In what appeared to be a response to the claims, the head of public relations at Khamenei’s office accused the country’s enemies of “mental warfare”.
“The enemy is resorting to mental warfare; all should be aware,” the official was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said there has so far been no official confirmation of Khamenei’s killing from Tehran.
He noted that Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi told NBC News earlier that, “as far as I know”, Iran’s supreme leader, as well as other top Iranian officials, remained in good health.
Saturday’s strikes on Iran targeted 24 provinces, killing at least 201 people, according to Iranian media reports, citing the Red Crescent.
Iran responded with a wave of counterattacks, targeting Israel and US military assets across the Middle East.
Netanyahu said in his address that many “senior figures” had been “eliminated” in the wave of attacks targeting senior leaders, as Trump called for the government to be toppled.
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