Iran confirms Supreme Leader’s death, declares 40 days of mourning

Iranian media also reported that Khamenei’s daughter, son-in-law, and grandson were killed.

Iran declared 40 days of mourning and a seven-day public holiday.

However, Iran’s state media did not release details of how the Supreme Leader died.

Iran’s Fars News Agency further reported that Khamenei died at his office while “carrying out assigned duties” in the early hours of Saturday (February 28, 2026).

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed on Saturday, Iranian state media said, after what the United States and Israel described as their most wide-ranging strikes on Iranian targets in decades.

Iranian media reported his death early on Sunday.

A senior Israeli official told Reuters earlier that Khamenei’s body had been found after a strike.

US President Donald Trump said Washington had worked closely with Israel to target the leader who had ruled Iran since 1989, adding in a Truth Social post that intelligence and tracking systems had monitored Khamenei’s whereabouts and that “there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Khamenei’s compound had been destroyed.

Three sources familiar with the matter said Iranian Defence Minister Amir Nasirzadeh and Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammed Pakpour were among those killed.

Israel’s military said it had confirmed five other senior military commanders were also dead, including Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to the supreme leader.

Iranian media also reported that Khamenei’s daughter, grandchild, son-in-law and daughter-in-law were killed.

Iran fires missiles across the region

Iran called the strikes unprovoked and illegal, then launched hundreds of missiles and drones in response, firing at Israel and at least seven other countries, including Gulf states that host US bases.

The Pentagon said there were no US deaths or injuries.

In Israel, sirens and phone alerts sent people to shelters as most incoming fire was intercepted, though some missiles hit.

Israel’s ambulance service said emergency teams in Tel Aviv treated at least 20 people injured after a missile struck a residential building.

Iran also fired missiles at Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha—major east–west aviation gateways.

Aviation sources told Reuters an overnight Iranian attack damaged an airport terminal in Dubai, and one of the city’s hotel districts was also hit.

Loud explosions were heard in Abu Dhabi.

Nada AlGarhy, 30, said she and her husband were at the Waldorf Astoria on Dubai’s Palm development for Iftar, the evening meal during Ramadan, when they heard a loud blast.

Bahrain said the service centre of the US Fifth Fleet—home base for American naval forces in the region—was hit by a missile attack, with video showing smoke rising near the coastline.

Qatar said it had downed all missiles targeting the country and had the right to respond. Kuwait confirmed a missile attack on a US military base there.

A senior Revolutionary Guards commander, Ebrahim Jabbari, said Iran’s response would intensify, claiming it had so far used only “scrap missiles” and would soon reveal previously unseen weapons.

Trump: ‘Epic Fury’ to stop ‘imminent threats’

Trump, who has cast himself as a “peace president” while campaigning for re-election, called the operation his biggest foreign-policy gamble and said the strikes were intended to end what he described as a decades-long threat from Iran and ensure it could not develop a nuclear weapon.

In an early Saturday video message, Trump said the Pentagon named the campaign Operation Epic Fury and described its aim as “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”

He again urged Iranians to topple the government, saying they should “take over” governance and calling it “probably your only chance for generations.”

He also warned the bombing would continue: “The heavy and pinpoint bombing… will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!”

Fear, celebrations, and reports of civilian casualties

Witnesses said some Iranians celebrated in Tehran, Karaj and Isfahan after reports of Khamenei’s death, while videos on social media—unverified by Reuters—appeared to show celebrations elsewhere.

At the same time, the strikes triggered widespread panic.

Minou, 32, a mother of two in the northern city of Tabriz, told Reuters by phone that her family was terrified and had nowhere to go.

Iranian state media cited a local prosecutor as saying a girls’ primary school in Minab, in southern Iran, was hit, killing 85 people—something Reuters could not independently confirm.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Oil shock fears and Hormuz warning

Tehran warned that the Strait of Hormuz had been closed, a narrow passageway used for roughly a fifth of global oil consumption.

Traders anticipated a sharp rise in oil prices, and airlines cancelled flights across the Middle East.

Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy, said prices could jump by $10 to $20 a barrel when markets reopen on Monday if there is no sign of de-escalation.

Iran is the third-largest producer in OPEC, supplying about 4% of global output, while far larger volumes are shipped past its coast through the strait leading out of the Gulf.

Scale of the strikes and stalled diplomacy

Israel’s military said about 200 fighter jets carried out what it called the largest flying mission in its history, striking 500 targets across Iran, including strategic defence systems that it said had already been damaged in strikes last year.

The latest escalation followed two years of Israeli operations that had killed senior Iranian military figures and weakened several Iran-aligned proxy forces.

After a 12-day air war in June—when the United States joined Israeli strikes—Washington and Jerusalem warned they would attack again if Iran pushed ahead with nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

Talks between US and Iranian officials had taken place as recently as Thursday, but senior US officials said Iran would not give up its ability to enrich uranium—an activity Iran says is for nuclear energy, but US officials argue could enable a nuclear bomb.

International and domestic backlash

At a U.N. Security Council meeting on Saturday, envoys from Russia and China criticised the US and Israel for launching strikes while Tehran was negotiating with Washington.

Russia’s U.N. envoy Vasily Nebenzya said Iran had been “stabbed in the back” and challenged the US claim that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon justified the attacks.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

Trump also faced resistance at home from opposition Democrats and a handful of Republicans, who said a prolonged campaign against Iran would be illegal without congressional approval and urged lawmakers to vote within days.

Reuters