This is a developing story. More to follow very soon.

EDIT 1

Supreme Ayatollah Khamenei was killed a few moments ago, a senior Israeli official told journalists off the record.

Footage of Khamenei’s body was allegedly presented to Prime Minister Netanyahu a few minutes ago. No official statement has been published.

EDIT 2

Videos in Farsi published on social media show some people cheering in Tehran from their apartments.

https://x.com/ManotoNews/status/2027835583146463736

These videos are not authentified. They could very well be true or AI.

EDIT 3

Headline of Maariv newspaper is now “Khamenei is killed”

“After decades of absolute rule, Israel confirms that the end of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has come”

EDIT 4

Reuters says Khamenei has been killed according to an Israeli official.

Iran DENIES the information and says Ayatollah Khamenei is fully in command.

https://www.reuters.com/world/iran-crisis-live-explosions-tehran-israel-announces-strike-2026-02-28/

EDIT 6

Some Iranian opposition accounts are celebrating.

Association of French-Iranian women says “YES, Finally”

https://x.com/femmeazadi/status/2027836456119443519

Iranian Sana Ebrahimi published video of herself dancing

https://x.com/__Injaneb96/status/2027841112610676910

EDIT 7

Politician Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Canadian Opposition, claims Ayatollah Khamenei is killed

https://x.com/PierrePoilievre/status/2027845628391526774

EDIT 8

I̶D̶F̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶f̶i̶r̶m̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶a̶t̶h̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶K̶h̶a̶m̶e̶n̶e̶i̶

The IDF said several Iranian leaders are killed, including the Defense Minister and Ali Shamkhani, the closest advisor of the Ayatollah

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-confirms-killing-top-iranian-leaders-including-top-defense-official-ali-shamkhani/

EDIT 9

Iranian Researcher Khosrol Isfahani published videos of people honking in the streets on social media

https://x.com/KhosroIsfahani/status/2027839875500912833

EDIT 10

Donald Trump told NBC News that he feels reports about the death of Khamenei are correct.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-responds-reports-ayatollah-death-rcna261149

EDIT 11

Iran International, the largest Iranian political opposition network, says Ayatollah Khamenei have been killed according to their own sources.

https://x.com/IranIntl_En/status/2027846843061633455

https://www.iranintl.com/fa/liveblog/20260228-Iranwar

EDIT 12

A french far-left politician who was questioned by police about her support for Hamas-Hezbollah just published a burning american flag. She really mad.

EDIT 13

Farnaz Fassihi, an iranian-american journalist, says she spoke on the phone with her sources in Tehran

Many people are celebrating but she says the information is NOT confirmed.

🚨 New York Times claims Trump confirms

EDIT 14

Official statement from the White House.

IT’S OVER FOLKS !!!


  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Anyone celebrating this, you HAVE to understand that the US and Israel did NOT do this because it was what the Iranian people wanted, they did it because it was what THEY want. Whether this will actually be good or bad for the Iranian people makes absolutely no difference to the US and Israel. They don’t care about the Iranian people, they don’t respect the Iranian people. This was a selfish act on the part of the US and Israel, not a selfless one.

    • lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com
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      3 hours ago

      I know that Trump did do this for himself.

      On the other hand, the Mullah dictatorship murdered Thousand of protesters during the last months, so they can get fcked!!!

    • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      I think this is obvious. We’re talking about a geopolitical war here. All the parties are looking exclusively looking to advance their own interests. That being said, I think we can criticize Israel and the US for attacking Iran for the way that they did, but also celebrate the deaths of this evil bastard as well as stand with the Iranian people who want their country back.

    • sirscooter@lemmy.zip
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      7 hours ago

      I’m hoping the Iranian people can come out of this a better country. But you are totally correct in that the US did this for the oil not the people.

      • in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 hours ago

        So long as the new governance is approved by Israel and The West. They better not try to democratically elect a leftist or socialist otherwise they’re gonna get a Western backed dictator forced on them instead.

    • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      I can’t believe there are people dumb enough that this needs to be pointed out, but yes, a thousand times yes. Upvote for visibility.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      8 hours ago

      Khamenei was a monster. It doesn’t matter how or why he’s dead. Good riddance, may he burn in hell for an eternity.

      It doesn’t matter whether a monster is killed by someone with noble intentions or a monster is killed by another monster. Either way there’s one less monster in the world.

      • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        It doesn’t matter whether a monster is killed by someone with noble intentions or a monster is killed by another monster.

        It does matter. It matters. And it’s so, so important that people understand that it matters. This attitude of, “the ends justify the means,” is very dangerous. The Iranian nation has had their autonomy taken away from them, first by Khamenei and now by the US and Israel. They are powerless, subject to the whims of people more powerful than them. They don’t make their own decisions about their own nation, the decisions are made for them by people who have enough guns and strongmen to impose their will on them.

        Edit: think of it like this: let’s say you’re living down the street from a family with an abusive father. The guy is just cruel to his wife and kids. So one day you decide to take matters into your own hands and you go and shoot the dad dead. That’s good, right? The cruel, abusive father is dead, so it’s good and justified, right? But you didn’t ask the wife or the kids if they wanted their father to be killed. You didn’t care what they wanted, because you didn’t do it for them. You did it for you. You did it because it was what YOU wanted. And if they get mad at you for it, you say oh they’re just ingrates. They don’t appreciate what I did for THEM. But, it wasn’t for them. It was never for them. It was for you.

        Edit 2: so what would the alternative be? What could we do to stop this cruel father that doesn’t require us to take matters into our own hands? Law. We need the rule of law. What would any reasonable person in a modern society do in this situation? They’d call the police. That’s what we need: the rule of law. Not countries deciding unilaterally who lives and who dies, but laws. Laws that apply to all of us, equally.

      • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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        7 hours ago

        I’m glad he’s dead, but the fear is that this creates an even worse situation.

        Attempts to remove a dictator by force are usually not possible without a lengthy occupation. There’s no new government or leaders ready to form a new government that is better for the Iranian people. An occupation is also unlikely to have good results. This isn’t reforming Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan, this is something else entirely. I would expect the people of Iran to not respond well to aggressors occupying their country. This is at best Afghanistan 2, but likely worse

      • phx@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        We don’t need to mourn the monster killed by monsters, but we SHOULD remember that even in this short time many innocents have also been killed in the process.

    • Danitos@reddthat.com
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      8 hours ago

      The same thing with people cheering on Maduro’s capture. People don’t care this is not a selfless act, they simply hope things finally start to get better.

    • belastend@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      8 hours ago

      I fully understand this, yet I am happy about Khamenei getting blown to bits. Now we just have to do the same thing to Trump and Bibi ^^

    • BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Who the fuck cares, Iranians finally got justice after decades of abuse and poverty

      • m0darn@lemmy.ca
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        8 hours ago

        The Iranians have not gotten justice. I don’t need convincing that he was a bad dude, but his death doesn’t cement freedom, and imo the attacks reduce stability and prosperity for Iranians.

      • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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        7 hours ago

        The more things change, the more they stay the same. Boundaries shift, new players step in; but power always finds a place to rest its head.

    • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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      7 hours ago

      The US just killed the leader of an entire branch of Muslims, what do they think is gonna happen

      • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        This is not true. Shia islam does NOT have a leader. It’s not like Catholicism, there’s no pope or equivalent position. Shia islam, like sunni islam, is entirely based around scriptures. The Iranian supreme leaders gave themselves the title of ayatollah to give themselves religious legitimacy, as their revolution is a religious on. However, that makes their religious title more political than religious. The vast majority of shias inside Iran, let alone around the world, don’t recognize him as the leader of the religion.

  • breakfastmtn@piefed.ca
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    7 hours ago

    Iran confirms:

    Iranian state media announced early on Sunday that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed. “To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return,” the news agency said. He died after U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iran on Saturday.

    https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02/28/world/iran-strikes-trump/02e753fe-8b30-5272-b383-56b1659d6491

    Edit: Also a whole bunch of his family.

    The deaths of the daughter, son-in-law and grandson of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, were confirmed, according to Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency on Sunday morning in Iran. One of his daughters-in-law was also killed, the news agency said.

    https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02/28/world/iran-strikes-trump/18b01a1c-c503-57bf-9436-38ffeaa15889

    • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Not like we’ve been here before. Surly there won’t be blowback from this.

    • perestroika@slrpnk.net
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      10 hours ago

      War will likely continue for now, and he has nominated his successor.

      However, eventually a power struggle may start (it’s not guaranteed) and then, Iranian people may get their foot between the door and force it open.

  • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    I’m glad he’s dead, I’m sad how it happened. Foreign bombs against a religious and political leader don’t make for a stable transition of power, they result in decades of war between rebels in the mountains and whoever controls the cities.

  • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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    10 hours ago

    I’m sure there will be a quick and peaceful transfer of power to a completely democratic leadership and no civilian casualties whatsoever.

    • Ulvain@sh.itjust.works
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      9 hours ago

      …" And the daydreaming ends. And you realize with your dick in your hand that you’re in the bottom of an empty well.

  • krashmo@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    “The bombings will continue until peace is achieved” is one of the craziest things I’ve ever heard Trump say, and that is saying a lot

  • Luriana@sh.itjust.worksOP
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    10 hours ago

    Personal opinion

    He was instrumental in helping Bachar El Assad massacre Syrians after the 2011 Arab Spring. The Iranian military saved Bachar by slaughtering countless

    He was the daddy of Hezbollah. Hezbollah assasinated countless Lebanese politicians who spoke out against the group. Khamenei urged Hezbollah to trigger two major wars against Israel (2006, 2023). The overwhelming majority of Lebanese DID NOT want these wars. The response was absolutely devastating for ordinary lebanese. Khamenei was laughing from Tehran while Lebanese paid the price.

    He was an enemy of the Ukrainian people. At the beginning of the Ukraine invasion, he gave thousands of drones to Vladimir Poutine. Drones are used to bomb Ukrainian cities

    And perhaps the most sadly, he was an enemy of the Iranian people. His men slaughtered countless Iranian protesters. As for the survivors, they were tortured and raped.

    https://theconversation.com/how-irans-government-has-weaponized-sexual-violence-against-women-who-dare-to-resist-253791

    https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/7480/2023/en/

    That dude was just evil. If anyone had it coming, it was him.

    Let’s hope that this bloody war ends now.

    • Aqarius@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      Hezbollah

      I… think you’re mixing him up with the other guy. Hesbollah have been around since before he was in charge.

  • piskertariot@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Including a statement from Pierre Poilievre means that the news doesn’t matter.

    If you’re going to include the opinions of people who can’t even win their own seat from countries who are across an ocean from Iran, there are plenty of others who are relevant.

    • rozodru@piefed.world
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      11 hours ago

      the fuck is PP giving statements for? fucker still doesn’t have security clearance. He’s got about as much knowledge on what’s really going on as I do.

  • Tolc@lemmy.zip
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    12 hours ago

    If this is true it would make IRGC even more united and furious I hope they kill netanyahu in retaliation

    • Barbecue Cowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      12 hours ago

      Everything is still kind of unverified, but it sounds like they may have got a significant portion of the IRGC leadership too.

      The popular voice right now seems to be the crown prince of the former Iranian monarchy.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        12 hours ago

        Basically because there’s no obvious uniting figure, so they go with somebody irrelevant and inoffensive.

        The US has opened a huge can of worms they have no interest in actually managing. This is going to be Syria but bigger and in an economically significant area.

      • EvergreenGuru@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        The issue is this is all western propaganda. We can only judge by Iran’s response, and since they’re making a cohesive military counterattack by bombing US Bases, we can see the country hasn’t lost its leadership.

        Trump attacking Iran is not going to go well. I believe Iran will win and the US will have wasted resources. Most importantly, the Iranians have closed the Strait of Hormuz.

        • MrMakabar@slrpnk.net
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          We can only judge by Iran’s response, and since they’re making a cohesive military counterattack by bombing US Bases, we can see the country hasn’t lost its leadership.

          Iran has not been able to do that. So far we have seen low number of missiles attacking individual bases. Anybody including Iran knows that you want to launch as many missiles as possible at the same time against a target, so air defense can not deal with all of them. They have done that in the past, but not this time.

          The other part is that Iran seems to know that a good number of Arab countries have closed their air space to the US. This includes the UAE. So there being Shahed attacks against Dubai is really really stupid from a strategic point of view. The UAE could easily allow them to actually use the air space or they even have a territorial conflict over some islands. It is not like Iran could do much, if the UAE took them back right now.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Given the viciousness and the firepower both US and Israel can bring to bare, it’s very possible they killed him.

    Also possible they’re just announcing this to further domestic unrest. If Khamenei doesn’t stick his head out to announce he’s alive, it will be that much easier to flip generals or city leaders who think they’ll need to surrender in order to survive.

    Videos in Farsi published on social media show some people cheering in Tehran

    “We’ll be greeted as liberators”

    No shortage of people in Iran who hate the Ayatollah. But it’s unlikely you’ll find folks under active bombardment feeling in the mood to cheer at any news.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      11 hours ago

      Flip to what, though?

      Iran was built to be redundant, and the protest movement is just a protest movement, to date. This isn’t going to be a clean transition to a different united regime.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          11 hours ago

          He’s about as prepared to run Iran as I am. Well, I guess he speaks the language at least. It’s not like you get one guy people don’t hate/sorta like and just plug them in, though.

          Who does have organisation and some support is the IRGC and the normal military. And probably all kinds of paramilitary movements on the peripheries. If Trump was going to send in troops and occupy it on the ground, they could try to slap together a shitty government of misfits like in Iraq, but he’s not.

          • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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            10 hours ago

            I guess he doesn’t have to have many qualifications here. He just has to be prepared to sell all their oil to their glorious liberators at discount rates.

            Then if China want any oil, they’ll have to come begging to Trump for it.

            • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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              9 hours ago

              It’s not about qualifications, it’s about why would anybody in Iran listen to him? This is military logic, it’s not like you take out the previous guy and then everyone listens to you; you have to make them. As it is, Trump might as well declare the guy in charge of the UK. Brits would about as motivated to give up their money when it comes time to pay him taxes.

              If there were American troops on the ground they could make it meaningful, but there won’t be, and an airstrike isn’t precise enough to enforce laws.