Iran’s government announced on March 1 that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in strikes attributed to the United States and Israel, declaring a 40‑day national mourning period and ordering seven days of government closures. Tehran described the attack as a grievous violation of Iranian sovereignty and promised “destructive” retaliation, while the United Nations convened an emergency Security Council meeting as calls for restraint circulated worldwide.
Iranian state media and official statements say the strikes on February 28 struck multiple targets in central Tehran, including the Supreme Leader’s office area, and killed several senior commanders. U.S. and Israeli officials, according to international press accounts cited in the Chinese dispatch, had tracked Khamenei’s movements and viewed a leadership meeting that morning as an opportunity to neutralise what they described as an imminent threat. Israeli and U.S. authorities are reported to have coordinated the operation amid ongoing, fitful negotiations with Tehran.
The Iranian announcements list the deaths of multiple high‑ranking figures alongside Khamenei and say relatives were also among the casualties; large public mourning has reportedly followed in Tehran and other cities, with scenes of grief fused with anti‑American and anti‑Israeli anger. Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) asserted rapid retaliation, issuing several communiqués that it had struck Israeli military targets and multiple U.S. facilities in the Gulf with missiles and drones.
Within hours of the Iranian response, international media captured images of strikes and fires at U.S. bases and Israeli sites across the region; Tehran announced it had attacked a U.S. aircraft carrier and said it would close the Strait of Hormuz. Reports in the Chinese source place claimed casualties in the thousands and describe damage in Gulf cities from missile and drone barrages, while regional airspace closures and missile‑intercept claims were widespread.
Beyond direct exchanges, a wider network of Iran‑aligned proxies — including Lebanese Hezbollah, Yemeni Houthi forces and Iraqi Shiite militias — declared or carried out strikes on Israeli and U.S. targets, broadening the theatre of conflict. Global reactions split along familiar lines: Moscow and Beijing condemned the strikes on Tehran as violations of sovereignty, European capitals urged immediate de‑escalation, and the U.N. secretary‑general warned that the use of force undermined international law and risked drawing the region into an uncontrollable war.
The reported killing of a sitting supreme leader is an unprecedented escalation with complex consequences. Iran’s constitution gives an Assembly of Experts the task of choosing a successor, but the IRGC’s operational role and political weight mean power could consolidate around hardline military figures, reducing space for moderation. For the international community, the immediate tasks are to prevent further kinetic escalation, protect commercial shipping and energy markets, and re‑open diplomatic channels to manage aftermath risks that include long‑term asymmetric warfare, threats to global oil supplies, and the potential collapse of delicate regional equilibria.