By Phil Stewart, Parisa Hafezi, Emily Rose and Andrew Mills
WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM/DUBAI/DOHA, Feb 28 (Reuters) – The United States and Israel launched the most ambitious attack on Iran in decades on Saturday, and Israel said Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had been killed in the operation.
Khamenei’s body has been found, a senior Israeli official told Reuters. Iran called the strikes unprovoked and illegal and responded with missiles fired at Israel and at least seven other countries, including Gulf states that host U.S. bases.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who made the biggest foreign-policy gamble of his presidency after campaigning for reelection as a “peace president”, said the strikes were aimed at ending the threat from a country that has threatened the United States for decades and ensuring Iran could not develop a nuclear weapon.
Trump called on Iranian security forces to lay down their weapons and invited Iranians to topple their government once the bombing ended. In a video posted overnight on social media, he also warned there could be U.S. casualties, although several hours later the U.S. Department of Defense said it had no reports of American deaths or injuries.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested the strikes had killed Khamenei, and called on Iranians to “take to the streets and finish the job.”
There were many signs indicating Khamenei “is no longer”, Netanyahu said. He said Khamenei’s compound had been destroyed, and Revolutionary Guard commanders and senior nuclear officials had been destroyed. Iranian media had said Khamenei’s son-in-law and daughter-in-law were killed in the strikes.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Michael Georgy, James MacKenzie and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Barbara Lewis, Sam Holmes, Timothy Heritage, Peter Graff and Cynthia Osterman)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.