BREAKING! Iran’s Supreme Leader is dead after US-Israeli attack on Iran — along with 40 top Iranian leaders

According to Israel’s Channel 12, the body of the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described as riddled with shrapnel, was recovered from the rubble after his compound in Tehran was targeted during the opening phase of what Israel is calling “Operation Roaring Lion” and the U.S. Department of Defense has codenamed “Operation Epic Fury.”

NY Post Iran’s tyrannical Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed Saturday in an unprecedented,  joint military attack by the US and Israel  which President Trump said would give Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back the country.”

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump declared on his Truth Social about 15 hours after the start of the onslaught. “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.”

Israeli officials told Fox News that more than 40 top Iranian security and regime figures were eliminated in the opening strikes this morning, and as many as 10 high-ranking leaders were killed in the initial strike on Khamenei’s fortified compound. Several senior Iranian leaders were targeted in the airstrikes carried out by the IDF.

A central objective of the first joint wave of attacks was to hit as many leaders as possible, according to three Israeli security officials familiar with the operations, the Times reported, adding that Jerusalem “expected the assault to last several days.”

The body of the 86-year-old Khamenei was reportedly recovered in the rubble and a photograph of his corpse was shown to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior Israeli official told Reuters. Khamenei has ruled Iran since the 1989 death of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.

US officials, including Trump, agree with Israel’s assessment that Khamenei is no longer alive. “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 tyrant’s daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law were also killed in the joint military attack, according to Iranian state media, though it’s unclear where they died.

Israel Likud Party lawmaker Dan Illouz told JNS “We are witnessing the birth of a new Middle East. Once this regime falls, my vision is that we will soon sign the ‘Cyrus Accords.’ Just as the Abraham Accords transformed our region, the Cyrus Accords will establish a historic peace between the Jewish state and a newly freed, democratic Iranian republic, renewing the ancient and deep bond between our two peoples,” Illouz continued.

He said the ultimate objective of the operation must be full regime change.

Satellite images published earlier Saturday by The New York Times showed extensive destruction at the Iranian leader’s compound, including collapsed structures and a large plume of black smoke rising from the fortified complex, which serves as both Khamenei’s primary residence and the site where he receives senior regime officials.

The military campaign involved “the largest regional concentration of American military firepower in a generation,” according to US Central Command (CENTCOM), and focused on the regime’s “security apparatus” and “imminent threat” locations.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command and control facilities, air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and military airfields were among the first targets hit when US military firepower began raining down on Iran at 1:15 am ET.

US and Israel hit targets across Iran using armed drones, long-range cruise missiles and aircraft. American warships launched Tomahawk cruise missiles, and from the sky, laser-guided, 30,000 pound GBU-57 or “bunker buster”  bombs — designed to ravage underground command centers — were deployed.

To put down Iran’s counterattack, the US used MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile systems and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAD) batteries.

Israel’s parallel operation dropped hundreds of munitions on roughly 500 Iranian targets and involved more than 200 Israeli Air Force aircraft — “largest ever military flyover in the history of the Israeli Air Force,” according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Multiple Islamic Revolution Guard Corps commanders were killed in the strikes — including IRGC Commander Gen. Mohammad Pakpour and Iranian defense minister Amir Nasirzadeh, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Pakpour was named head of the IRGC after Israel’s June attacks on Iran killed his predecessor, Hossein Salami, and oversaw the deaths of thousands of protestors during weeks-long unrest in December. Nasirzadeh was the point man for Iran’s production of long-range surface-to-surface missiles and weapons transferred to Iranian proxies. He also served as commander of the Iranian Air Force.

Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, was also killed, according to the IDF. As were Saleh Asadi, a top Iranian intelligence official, and Hossein Jabal Amelian, the chairman of the SPND Organization, a group that advanced Iranian projects related to nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.

Iranians were celebrating in the streets following the US and Israeli military strikes on Iran, despite the ongoing conflict engulfing the Middle East. After months of brutal repression from the Islamic regime, many Iranians view the strikes as an opportunity for regime change and freedom from 47 years of authoritarian rule.

GB News speaks to anti-regime protesters in London where Iranians express relief at the strikes targeting the military infrastructure of the government they despise, while remaining fearful of the regime’s violent crackdown on dissent.

Trump emphasized that a main objective of the campaign was “to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”

“Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted ‘Death to America’ and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the United States, our troops and the innocent people in many, many countries,” Trump said in an eight-minute video announcing the strikes Saturday morning.

Hours later, Iranian state media confirmed that Khamenei had been “martyred.” “We hereby inform the devoted, martyr-loving people of Iran that His Eminence Ayatollah al-Uzma Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, was martyred in a joint attack by the criminal America and the Zionist regime on the morning of Monday, the ninth of Esfand.”