A developing storyGrowth story,
Published on 28 February 2026
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been killed in an Israeli-US strike, according to Israeli media reports and a senior Israeli official.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were “growing signs” that Khamenei was killed in a joint US-Israeli strike launched early Saturday.
Reuters news agency, citing a senior Israeli official, reported on Saturday that Khamenei’s body had been found.
But Iran’s Tasnim and Mehr news agencies reported that Khamenei was “steady and firm in commanding the field”.
In what appeared to be a response to the claims, the head of public relations for Khamenei’s office accused the country’s enemies of “psychological warfare”.
“The enemies are resorting to psychological warfare, everyone should be aware,” Iranian state media quoted a public relations official as saying.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said there had been no official confirmation from Tehran so far.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News that “as far as I know” Iran’s Supreme Leader and other top Iranian officials are in good health.
US President Donald Trump told NBC News that he believed reports of Khamenei’s death were “the right story”.
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 Israeli and US military assets across the Middle East.
Netanyahu said in his speech that many “senior figures” had been “eliminated” in a wave of military attacks targeting senior leaders as Trump called for the government to be overthrown.
Israel, he said, had killed “commanders in the Revolutionary Guards and senior officials in the nuclear program.” “And we will continue,” he said.
More to come…
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