(Staff post from the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD on 01 March 2026.)
‘One
of the most evil people in history’: Khamenei killed in strikes, Trump confirms.
US President Donald Trump says the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
is the “greatest chance” for Iranians to take back the country following a
stunning new chapter in American military intervention that opens the potential
for retaliatory violence in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Iranian
state media confirmed the death, without elaborating on a cause of death,
following the most ambitious strikes on the country by the United States and
Israel in decades on Saturday Australian time.
In a
social media post on Sunday Australian time, Trump called Khamenei “one of the
most evil people in history” and said that “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would
continue “uninterrupted” in the coming week and possibly beyond.
US President Donald Trump said that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could not escape the US and Israeli web of surveillance. “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,” he said in the post.
“He
was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems
and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other
leaders that have been killed along with him, could do.”
Earlier,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a nationally televised
address that there were many signs indicating Khamenei “is no longer” and
calling on Iranians to finish the job. He said that Khamenei’s compound had
been destroyed, and Revolutionary Guard commanders and senior nuclear officials
had also been killed.
Iran has called the strikes unprovoked and illegal and responded with missiles fired at Israel and at least seven other countries, including Gulf states that host US bases. Mourners raised a black flag over the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city and a major pilgrimage site for Shiite Muslims. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened on Sunday to launch its “most-intense offensive operation” ever after the killing of the supreme leader.
“The
most-intense offensive operation in the history of the armed forces of the
Islamic Republic of Iran will begin in moments, targeting (Israel) and American
terrorist bases,” it said.
The
death of the Iranian leader opens a stunning new chapter in US intervention in
Iran and carries the potential for retaliatory violence in the Middle East and
elsewhere. The strikes launched on Iran also represented a startling flex of
military might for an American president who swept into office on an “America
First” platform and vowed to keep out of “forever wars”.
The
killing of Khamenei in the second Trump administration assault on Iran in eight
months appeared certain to create a leadership vacuum given the absence of a
known successor. The 86-year-old supreme leader had the final say on all major
policies during his decades in power.
Khamenei
led Iran’s clerical establishment and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the
two main centres of power in the governing theocracy. As reports trickled out
about the death, eyewitnesses in Tehran told The Associated Press that some
residents were rejoicing, blowing whistles and letting out ululations.
