Iran latest: Trump confirms supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei killed in US-Israeli strikes

The strikes – described by President Trump as a “major combat operation” – reaffirm a new age. A rogue order led by the US president that many nations around the world run by authoritarian thugs will relish. They will also look to many Muslims and non-Muslims as an attack on Islam itself.

After killing upwards of 80,000 people in Gaza, flattening the enclave, Israel has continued with land grabs on what small patches of territory remain to Palestinians on the West Bank. The strikes on Iran – as with the war on Gaza – will lead to a violent backlash. It will lead to terrorism.

Our world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:

Here is Donald Trump’s full statement announcing the death of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Donald Trump has confirmed that Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei was killed in US-Israeli airstrikes.

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” the US president wrote on Truth Social.

“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.”

The US president said this is the “single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country”, and warned the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” will “continue uninterrupted throughout the week”.

Our political correspondent David Maddox reports.

A Downing Street spokesperson has said that the prime minister and President Trump have spoken on the phone this evening.

They discussed the situation in the Middle East.

The prime minister set out that the UK was taking part in coordinated regional defensive operations to protect British people and regional partners following Iran’s indiscriminate retaliatory strikes on allies in the region.

Iranian authorities have revised the death toll of a strike on a girls’ primary school in southern Iran to 108, according to the Financial Times.

Most of the victims were school girls, authorities said.

The Shajareh Tayebeh primary school in the coastal city of Minabwas struck at 10:45am on Saturday, said Mohammad Ashouri, governor of Hormozgan province.

Neither the US or Israel have commented on the strike.

Donald Trump has said that the US believes that Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead.

“We feel that that is a correct story,” the US president told NBC News.

He added that the “people that make all the decisions, most of them are gone”.

The Israeli military has issued a statement claiming that it has killed seven senior members of Iran’s defense leadership.

Among them were the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Pakpour, and defense minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, it said.

These are the officials, and their roles, named by the military:

Ali Shamkhani – Secretary of the Iranian Security Council.

Mohammad Pakpour – Commander of the IRGC .

Saleh Asadi – Head of the Intelligence Directorate of the Khatam al-Anbiya emergency command, according to the IDF.

Mohammad Shirazi – Head of the Military Bureau of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei since 1989, according to the IDF.

Aziz Nasirzadeh – Defense Minister of Iran.

Hossein Jabal Amelian – Chairman of the SPND Organization (defense research and innovation organisation), according to the IDF.

Reza Mozaffari-Nia – Former Chairman of the SPND Organization, according to the IDF.

The US became tired with Iran’s “games and tricks” before it carried out its attack, an unnamed senior Trump administration official has said.

The official said that Tehran’s lack of seriousness in the nuclear talks left President Donald Trump with no choice but to attack.

“It was very clear that the intent for them was to preserve their ability to do enrichment so that over time, they could use it for nuclear bomb,” they told reporters.