President Donald Trump said Saturday that U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top leaders.
“The people that make all the decisions, most of them are gone,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call, adding that “a large amount of leadership” in Iran was also killed, although he declined to go into more detail.
Shortly after the call, Trump posted on Truth Social that Khamenei had been killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” he wrote. “This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”
Iranian state television network Press TV confirmed Khamenei’s death on social media.
“Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei martyred in US-Israeli attacks on Iran,” it posted on X.
Iranian state media outlet IRNA said later that Secretary of the Iranian Defense Council Ali Shamkhani and Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, were killed in the airstrikes. Previously, the Israel Defense Forces said the two were among those killed.
NBC News asked Trump who will next lead Iran. He replied, “I don’t know, but at some point they’ll be calling me to ask who I’d like,” adding that he was “only being a little sarcastic when I say that.”
“But look, it’s going very well. It’s been, you know, we’re, we’re probably, in terms of zero-to-10, we’re close to the 10 spot, if not there, and it’s thus far been going well, but we have a ways to go. Tremendous damage has been inflicted. The leadership is gone,” he said. “Large, large portions of the leadership.”
Trump, who has been monitoring the U.S.-Israel joint operations from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, announced “major combat operations” in Iran in a video statement on his Truth Social account early Saturday.
“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world,” he said, while also warning that the strikes could result in casualties among Americans, including deaths.
He also urged Iranian citizens to take over their government, saying: “It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
The strikes, part of Operation Epic Fury, began at 1:15 a.m. ET, according to U.S. Central Command. “Targets included Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control facilities, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields,” CENTCOM said.
The strikes were launched from the air, land and sea, it added, and the U.S. also used “low-cost one-way attack drones for the first time in combat.”
Talks over Iran’s missile and nuclear capabilities failed to yield a diplomatic agreement this week.
Most Republican members of Congress lauded the strikes, but Democrats, along with Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul, both Kentucky Republicans, expressed outrage that Trump acted unilaterally without congressional approval. Some of the critical lawmakers said Saturday that they plan to force a war powers vote in the House next week.
Asked by NBC News how he’ll know whether the operation is done and whether it was a success, Trump said: “I think it’s already a success. We’ve inflicted tremendous damage. It would take them years to rebuild.”