Iran-Israel War: Is Ayatollah still alive and where is he?
On Saturday, the United States and Israel began combined military operations against Iran, including assaults near Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s Tehran headquarters.
Is the ayatollah still alive?
According to Channel 12, citing anonymous Israeli sources, the administration is ‘assessing’ the possibility that Khamenei was killed in a strike earlier Saturday.
The same channel had previously stated that Khamenei was “hurt at the very least,” before reporting he was killed. Israel’s national channel Kan stated that “there is no contact” with Khamenei and that his status was unclear.
Iran has disputed and ridiculed the reports. According to a source close to the president, Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian are “in good health.” In an interview with NBC, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghch stated that the country’s 86-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is still alive “as far as I know.”
The New York Times got satellite imagery from Airbus Defence and Space, which showed Khamenei’s Tehran compound, known as the Beit-e Rahbari, the seat of his decades-long dominance, reduced to smoking ruins.
Where is Ayatollah Khamenei?
According to accounts, Ayatollah Khamenei was not at his offices in Tehran when the attacks occurred, and he is said to have been rushed away to a top-secret subterranean bunker at an unidentified location.
According to a Reuters source citing an Iranian official, Khamenei was transported to a top-secret safe house as the US-Israeli onslaught began on Saturday. The Supreme Leader is thought to be held in a safe underground bunker, with only members of his close circle likely to know where he is.
The United States and Israel launched a concerted attack on Iran on Saturday, with Trump later admitting in a social media tweet that US forces were part of it.
Following the incident, Iran began retaliatory missile strikes on Israel and US military locations in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Kuwait, raising worries of a full-fledged regional conflict.