The Iranian government has confirmed the death of Ayatollah Khamenei, following President Donald Trump’s initial claim that the religious leader was killed in US and Israeli airstrikes on parts of Iran.
The statement carried by Iranian state media did not specify how the religious leader was killed or who would succeed him.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council confirmed Khamenei’s death, blaming the US and Israel, the statement said.
The statement said Khamenei’s martyrdom would be the beginning of a “war against the oppressors”.
The statement added that Ayatollah Khamenei was killed early Saturday in his office.
State media had previously confirmed the deaths of his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter in US and Israeli airstrikes.
According to the Fars News Agency, which is close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, there were reports that Khamenei’s daughter-in-law was among those killed.
Iranian state television has declared 40 days of mourning in Iran and seven days of public holidays to mourn the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran has announced that the president and the head of the judiciary will lead the process of appointing a new leader after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei was elected on the day Ruhollah Ayatollah Khomeini died.
Who is Ayatollah Khamenei?
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the second supreme leader of Iran after the 1979 revolution, and has held the position since 1989.
Young people in the country often grow up seeing him as their religious leader.
He wields a powerful grip on power – he has the power to rule at any level of the country, and he has the power to appoint or remove anyone he wants to any position in the country.
He is the commander of the country’s armed forces, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
He was born in Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city, in 1939.
He is the second of eight children, and his father was a Shiite cleric.
He began studying and learning to read the Quran at a young age, becoming a teacher at the age of 11.
Although he was a religious authority, his work is now more politically influential.
Khamenei is a gifted orator, and has been a leading critic of the Shah of Iran, the monarch who was overthrown in the revolution.
Khamenei spent much of his life underground or in prison. He was arrested six times during the Shah’s reign, where he faced execution.
A year after the 1979 revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini appointed him as the chief Friday prayer leader of Tehran.
He was later elected vice president in 1981, before being elected by the country’s religious leaders in 1989 to succeed Ayatollah Khomeini, who had died at the age of 86.
Discover more from Flash News Ng
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
