From Axios:
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike Saturday as part of a massive joint military operation between the U.S. and Israel, Israel's ambassador to Washington told U.S. officials.
- An Israeli official confirmed to Axios that Khamenei is dead, according to Israeli intelligence.
Why it matters: The 86-year-old Khamenei led Iran for 35 years, making him one of the world's longest-serving authoritarian rulers. His death is a massive blow to the regime and could accelerate its collapse, which U.S. and Israeli officials have stated as a goal of their operation.
The big picture: Khamenei's killing sets off an immediate succession crisis with no clear answer.
- Under Iran's constitution, a council of clerics is meant to select a new supreme leader — but Israel's strikes also targeted senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders and political leaders, leaving the regime's chain of command in disarray.
- Israeli officials say they assess the Iranian minister of defense and the commander of the IRGC were also among those killed in targeted strikes on Saturday.
Exclusive: Prior to Iran attacks, CIA assessed Khamenei could be replaced by hardline IRGC elements if killed, sources say:
In the run-up to the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Saturday, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency assessed that even if Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the operation, he could be replaced by hardline figures from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), two sources briefed on the intelligence said.
The agency's assessments, which were produced over the past two weeks, looked broadly at what could occur in Iran following a U.S. intervention and the extent to which a military operation could trigger regime change in the Islamic Republic -- now a pronounced objective for Washington.
The Guardian reports:
Contradicting Israeli reports that Ali Khamenei is dead, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim and Mehr news agencies are reporting that the supreme leader is “steadfast and firm in commanding the field”.
Again, we still haven’t had any official confirmation on Khamenei’s fate, and there is a strong incentive for both sides to control the narrative about him being dead or alive. We’ll bring you more clarity as we get it. [...]
The US president has been speaking to US media, in which he appeared to back up Israeli reports that Iran’s supreme leader was killed in air strikes today.
Donald Trump addressed reports that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed, telling NBC News, “We feel that that is a correct story.”
He added that “most” of Iran’s senior leadership is “gone”.
See also my Feb. 25 If Trump goes all in against Iran, it would fulfill the neoconservatives' fondest dream. Excerpt:
From the lies that greased the invasion of Iraq to the “surgical” interventions that metastasized into regime-change disasters, U.S. military adventures in the Middle East have followed a script: exaggerate the threat, marginalize diplomacy, promise quick results, and downplay the human cost. Then comes the quagmire, the blowback, the coffins, and the bill — paid not by the architects of war, but by ordinary people here and abroad.
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As the Iran situation unfolds, remember the perils of the fog of war. Some of that comes from often fast-moving circumstances alone, but some is manufactured specifically to deceive. Both good reasons to be cautious about what information you accept as true and amplify as this conflict rolls on.
— MeteorBlades (@meteorblades.bsky.social) 2026-02-28T20:45:43.478Z
