Name: Iran supreme leader Khamenei is dead, Trump & Israeli sources say
Uploaded: 2026-02-28T23:01:02.000Z
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We are getting information from Israeli sources that the Ayatollah is dead.

This is breaking news again coming from Israeli sources that the Ayatollah, the Supreme Leader of Iran is dead.

Again, we're going to go to Jeremy Diamond.

Jeremy, the strikes coming this morning that were targeting senior leadership, that's what we knew, targeting senior leadership there in Iran.

And now we can say from Israeli sources that the Ayatollah of Iran, the Supreme Leader, is dead.

What more are you learning there in Israel?

Two Israeli sources tell me and my colleague Tal Shalev that Israel has confirmed that the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been killed as a result of those Israeli strikes that took place earlier today.

One of these sources saying that Israel actually has photographic evidence of Khamenei showing his dead body.

The second source told me that an official announcement is in the works, although it is possible that the Israelis will allow President Trump and the United States to make this announcement officially.

But this is enormous breaking news here that the Israeli government is confirming that the Supreme Leader of Iran was killed in Israeli strikes earlier today.

This is a day that many Israeli government officials have hoped would come eventually.

It is also, we should note, a day that many Iranian dissidents, Iranian protesters, had hoped would eventually come.

And it is an earth shattering moment for the Middle east and for the future of Iran.

We should note, however, that the Supreme Leader's death is not necessarily indicative of the Iran regime collapsing altogether.

This regime is not based off of one person alone.

And we know that the Supreme Leader understood very well that he could potentially be targeted for assassination should the United States and Israel choose to carry out massive strikes on Iran as they did today.

And in recent weeks and months, he has been preparing for potential lines of succession should that actually take place.

We are still waiting, of course, for any confirmation from the United States as well as to the Supreme Leader having been killed.

But two Israeli sources familiar with the matter telling us now that the Supreme Leader was killed in Israeli strikes today.

One last note on this is that we have also been hearing about the division of labor between the United States and Israel as it pertains to these strikes.

officials have been very clear that their strikes have been focus on military targets and that the strikes targeting senior Iranian leaders such as the Supreme Leader were being conducted by Israel and not by the United States.

Ultimately, that may very well be a distinction without a difference given the high level of coordination between the United States and Israel in preparing and carrying out these strikes.

But this is obviously an enormous, enormous moment in the Middle east, something that we anticipated could potentially be a target of any Israeli or US Strikes on Iran.

confirmed by Israeli sources that the supreme leader of Iran is dead.

Indeed, big news out of the Middle east, the potential to reshape so many dynamics there.

But again, as Jeremy notes, not a straight line to regime change.

This is a piece of it, but it is a big, this is enormous news.

Jeremy, I want you to stand by because we have stayed, we have seen those missiles that have been coming to Israel throughout the day.

so help people understand, contextualize for them that what this means, that the Iran, that Iran's supreme leader has been killed in these strikes by the US These strikes are now officially decapitation strikes, right?

Strikes that were intended via Israeli military action, to be clear, to take out Iran's most senior leadership.

And the man you see there, Ali Khamenei, is Iran's most senior leader with enormouscertainly political power in that country, but

also religious authority in that country.

The structure of Iranian government being that yes, it has a president elected, but

the, the supreme leader lies at the top of the government.

And that is that man you see speaking there, which Israeli sources are now telling CNN was killed in these strikes.

Again, you know, to my point earlier, Jessica, prior to this morning, there'd been an enormous amount of speculation as to just how far one, the US Was willing to go, but

Israel as well, if they were striking together, and

now we know they were willing to go as far as taking out Iran's most senior leader.

Now, we had reported earlier that he was not the only target of these strikes, that other senior military and other leaders in Iran were targeted.

We don't know their status at this point, but

as we reported earlier in the day, Israeli officials were becoming more confident over time today that they had hit, they had hit at least some of their targets.

Listen, in Iran, does that mean that suddenly there will be a new government, a new leader, one friendlier to the U.S.

an enormous network and structure of leadership and power remains in that country, military, economic, political and otherwise.

But to take out the supreme leader is a significant, significant change.

And of course, the question is, how far does that change go?

Does it weaken the government to the degree that the government collapses, does it weaken it to a degree that the protesters that we saw take on this government quite bravely in recent weeks are inspired to go out into the streets?

I mean, that's what President Trump was encouraging them to do explicitly in a statement this morning.

Now, that's quite a risky proposition given that that government retains enormous power and they showed they were willing to use it to a deadly extent in the many thousands of protesters they killed in recent weeks.

Was Israel willing to go so far as to take out the supreme leader of of Iran?

And the answer is yes, and they had success doing so.

And now the big question is what comes next?

I want to bring in Barack Ravid, CNN political and global affairs analyst.

He's also a global affairs correspondent at Axios.

Barack, I know you spoke with President Trump earlier today.

Again, if you are just joining us, our breaking news is that Iran's supreme leader has been killed in these strikes.

That is coming from Israeli sources, Barack.

We're still waiting to hear from the president, from the US Government, the Israeli sources confirming that.

So first, just about Khamenei, I think around 30, 40 minutes ago, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Yechiel leiter updated several U.S.

officials and members of Congress that Israeli intelligence shows that Khamenei has been killed and his body was taken out of the rubble in the compound in Tehran that was attacked.

I spoke to President Trump a little bit after, before 1pm while he was in Mar a Lago.

The president sounded to me at least pretty calm and confident that things are going according to plan.

I think the situation with Khamenei was one of the main things he was tracking at that moment.

And what was interesting in what he told me is that he was talk.

I asked him, how long is this going to continue?

I can go long and take the whole thing, meaning take over Iran, something that, you know, I don't think that's something that is seriously being considered.

Or I can go on for another two, three days and then tell the Iranians we'll see you again in a few years if you try and rebuild your nuclear program, your missile program, meaning that Donald Trump, at least my impression from the conversation with him is that he's looking to end this thing within a few days and basically put an ultimatum to the Iranians we can get a deal, or you can try and rebuild your program, and

then we'll just bomb you again if you try to do this.

And I think that was one of the messages that U.S.

officials that just briefed reporters, I think, 10 minutes ago said that when the 12 day war ended after Operation Midnight Hammer, the U.S.

told Iran, if you try to rebuild, we will come again.

And those U.S. officials said that the Iranians, according to U.S. intelligence, did try and rebuild the program.

So we know from satellite imagery that the Iranians started infrastructure work in several of the nuclear sites that were attacked in June.

We do not know whether they really tried to resume a nuclear program, meaning enrichment and other activities.

One of the interesting things I heard from President Trump is that he told me that he thinks that Operation Midnight Hammer allowed Operation Epic Fury to go forward.

Because President Trump claimed that if he did not go on that operation last June, if he did not order a strike on those free nuclear facilities, Iran would have been much, much closer to a nuclear weapon, maybe even have a nuclear weapon by now, according to what President Trump said.

And that would make the current operation much harder, maybe even impossible.