Israel, US launched strikes as Iranian leader meeting with Top Aide

Israel and the U.S. timed their attack on Iran on ​Saturday to coincide with a meeting the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, ​was holding with top aides, according to ⁠two U.S. sources and a U.S. official familiar with the matter.



Israel said Khamenei was killed along with top lieutenants including Ali Shamkhani, the powerful former National Security Council secretary, and Mohammad Pakpour, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander.



Two Iranian sources told Reuters that Khamenei met on Saturday with Shamkhani and Supreme ​National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani at a secure location shortly before the strikes started.



A senior Israeli official told Reuters that Khamenei’s body had been found.



U.S. President Donald Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that Iran's ​top leader was killed after intelligence pinpointed his movements. "



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," Trump said.



The U.S. and Israeli military strikes across Iran have pushed the Middle East into a new and unpredictable conflict, with Iran launching retaliatory attacks against Israel and nearby Gulf Arab countries.



The ​two U.S. sources and the U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that confirmation of Khamenei's meeting with top advisers put the Israeli-U.S. air and naval operation into motion.