Following US-Israeli assaults, Iran confirms the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

 Iranian state television announces a 40-day period of mourning and confirms allegations that Khamenei was murdered in US and Israeli strikes. 

Following earlier allegations of his death by US and Israeli authorities, Iranian state media have announced that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was murdered at his office during the Israeli-US airstrikes on Iran.

There will be a 40-day period of mourning for the longstanding Iranian leader.

The statement on Sunday follows early reports by Iran's Mehr and Tasnim news agencies that Khamenei remained "steadfast and firm in commanding the field."

Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that the joint US-Israeli strikes, which started early on Saturday, killed Khamenei, 86.

"Working closely with Israel, he was unable to evade our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems, and there was nothing he or the other leaders who were killed with him could do," Trump wrote.

He declared, "This is the Iranian people's best opportunity to reclaim their country." "Hopefully, the Iranian Patriots will peacefully unite with the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and Police."

Although Khamenei's assassination adds uncertainty to an ongoing conflict that has already sparked worries that violence could intensify and spread further, Iranian officials had long planned for the possibility of eliminating him in the case of a war with the US and Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has previously asserted that there were "increasing signs" that Khamenei had been murdered.

Furthermore, Khamenei's body had been found, according to a report by the Reuters news agency, which cited an unidentified senior Israeli official.

Since 1989, Khamenei has been Iran's supreme leader, replacing Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the country's revolution in 1979.

In addition to serving as the nation's spiritual leader, the supreme leader has last say over the armed forces, the judiciary, and all other branches of government.

In the case that Khamenei's death is verified, Iran "had a plan," Barbara Slavin, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera.

"A council will most likely be established to govern the nation. As far as we know, it might have already been in charge of the nation," she stated.
Trump indicates that strikes will continue.

According to Iranian media sources citing the Red Crescent, Saturday's attacks on Iran targeted 24 provinces and killed at least 201 people.

Israel attacked two Iranian schools, killing at least 108 people in the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' primary school in the southern city of Minab and two more at a school east of Tehran, the country's capital.

As Trump called for the overthrow of the government, Netanyahu claimed in his speech that many "important people" had been "eliminated" in the wave of attacks targeting senior authorities.

Netanyahu said that Israel had murdered "key executives in the nuclear program and commanders in the Revolutionary Guard." And we will keep going.

In his Truth Social post, Trump said that "massive and pinpoint bombardment" of Iran would continue "uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as required."

Iran's counterattacks on Saturday prompted air-defense interceptions in a number of nations, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, which host airbases with US assets.

According to a statement released by the IRNA news agency on Saturday night, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) declared that the third and fourth rounds of "retaliatory" strikes on US and Israeli locations were still in progress.

De-escalation is what Guterres demands.

At a Security Council emergency meeting, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his profound regret that a diplomatic opportunity had been "squandered."

"In the world's most unstable region, military intervention bears the risk of sparking a chain of events that no one can control," he warned the 15-member panel. "I demand a quick end to hostilities and de-escalation."

Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council that Israel and the United States had "started an unjustified and premeditated aggression" with attacks on "civilian populated regions in numerous main cities of Iran, where millions of people reside."

"This is a crime against humanity, a war crime, and an act of aggression," he declared.

Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, argued that the military operation was legal. He declared, "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon." It is not a political issue. It has to do with international security.

Beijing is extremely concerned about "the unexpected escalation of regional tensions," according to China's UN envoy, Fu Cong.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia's envoy, called for the US and Israel to "immediately cease their hostile activities" in response to the US-Israeli airstrikes.