Iran’s tyrannical Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed Saturday in an unprecedented,  joint military attack by the US and Israel called Operation Epic Fury  —  which President Trump said would give Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back the country.”

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump declared on his Truth Social about 15 hours after the start of the onslaught. “This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”

Hours later, Iranian state media confirmed that Khamenei had been “martyred.”

“The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran has been martyred,” Tasnim News shared on X.

“We hereby inform the devoted, martyr-loving people of Iran that His Eminence Ayatollah al-Uzma Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, was martyred in a joint attack by the criminal America and the Zionist regime on the morning of Monday, the ninth of Esfand.”

The tyrant’s daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law were also killed in the joint military attack, according to Iranian state media, though it’s unclear where they died.

Israeli officials told Fox News that more than 40 top Iranian security and regime figures were eliminated in the opening strikes this morning, and as many as 10 high-ranking leaders were killed in the initial strike on Khamenei’s fortified compound.

The body of the 86-year-old Khamenei was reportedly recovered in the rubble and a photograph of his corpse was shown to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior Israeli official told Reuters.

US officials, including Trump, agree with Israel’s assessment that Khamenei is no longer alive.

“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’s post continued. “This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.”

In an address to his nation, Netanyahu said there were “many signs” Khamenei was dead.

Khamenei has ruled Iran since the 1989 death of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.

The attacks follow a massive US military buildup in the Middle East and come after Trump repeatedly warned Tehran that it would face consequences if it didn’t make a deal with the US to scrap its nuclear program.

Trump emphasized that a main objective of the campaign was “to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”

“Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted ‘Death to America’ and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the United States, our troops and the innocent people in many, many countries,” Trump said in an eight-minute video announcing the strikes Saturday morning.

Many regime forces appear to by laying down their arms, Trump said.

“We are hearing that many of their IRGC, Military, and other Security and Police Forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking for Immunity from us,” Trump wrote. “As I said last night, ‘Now they can have Immunity, later they only get Death!’”

The president called on the IRGC and state police to “peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots, and work together as a unit to bring back the Country to the Greatness”

“That process should soon be starting in that, not only the death of Khamenei but the Country has been, in only one day, very much destroyed and, even, obliterated,” Trump added.

Follow live updates on the US and Israel’s war with Iran

The military campaign involved “the largest regional concentration of American military firepower in a generation,” according to US Central Command (CENTCOM), and focused on the regime’s “security apparatus” and “imminent threat” locations.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command and control facilities, air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and military airfields were among the first targets hit when US military firepower began raining down on Iran at 1:15 am ET.

In the hours after the attack, CENTCOM released video footage of Tomahawk cruise missiles being launched from a US Navy vessel and fighter jets taking off from an American ship.

US and Israel hit targets across Iran using armed drones, long-range cruise missiles and aircraft. American warships launched Tomahawk cruise missiles, and from the sky, laser-guided, 30,000 pound GBU-57 or “bunker buster”  bombs — designed to ravage underground command centers — were deployed.

To put down Iran’s counterattack, the US used MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile systems and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAD) batteries.

Trump ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carriers to the Middle East, along with dozens of destroyers and littoral combat ships, in the weeks leading up to the operation.

An airfleet of F-16 Falcons, F-22 Raptors and F-35 jets were also dispatched to the region.

Israel’s parallel operation, “Lion’s Roar,” dropped hundreds of munitions on roughly 500 Iranian targets and involved more than 200 Israeli Air Force aircraft — “largest ever military flyover in the history of the Israeli Air Force,” according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Trump and Vice President Vance orchestrated Saturday’s monumental strikes on Iran hundreds of miles apart from one another, with the president and his national security team giving orders from Mar-a-Lago.

Vance was dialed into a conference line with Trump from the Situation Room at the White House, where he was joined by US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as well as the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, images released by the White House show.

In Palm Beach, Fla., Trump huddled with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, chief of staff Susie Wiles, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan “Raizin” Caine.

Multiple Islamic Revolution Guard Corps commanders were killed in the strikes — including IRGC Commander Gen. Mohammad Pakpour and Iranian defense minister Amir Nasirzadeh, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Pakpour was named head of the IRGC after Israel’s June attacks on Iran killed his predecessor, Hossein Salami, and oversaw the deaths of thousands of protestors during weeks-long unrest in December.

Nasirzadeh was the point man for Iran’s production of long-range surface-to-surface missiles and weapons transferred to Iranian proxies. He also served as commander of the Iranian Air Force.

Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, was also killed, according to the IDF.

As were Saleh Asadi, a top Iranian intelligence official, and Hossein Jabal Amelian, the chairman of the SPND Organization, a group that advanced Iranian projects related to nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.

The strikes hit the enclaves of Isfahan, Qom, Karaj and Kermanshah, as well.

In retaliation, Iran launched missiles and suicide drones toward Israel and numerous US military sites across nine Middle Eastern nations. This included a strike near a US Navy base in Bahrain that sent a massive explosion and a cloud of dark smoke into the sky, as officials said the response would be “crushing.””

CENTCOM said it repelled “hundreds” of Iranian strikes and that US installations in the Middle East sustained only “minimal” damage.

There have been no reports of US casualties or combat-related injuries.

The regime also struck a lush Dubai tourist hot spot, igniting the ritzy Fairmont The Palm at the Palm Jumeirah on fire, terrifying footage showed. Iran’s main drone of choice is the SHAHED-136, a suicide loitering hypersonic missile dubbed the “Witness.”

Only five people were killed in Iran’s counterattacks.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard blocked vessels from passing the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most vital oil export route connecting Gulf oil producers—such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates—with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

An average of 20 million barrels of oil flow through the straight per day — equivalent to about 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption.

The exiled crown prince of Iran, who has been living in the US since the 1979 revolution, celebrated the military operation and joined in Trump’s calls to “seize control of your destiny” by rising up against the repressive Islamic regime that has ruled with an iron fist since the 1979 revolution.

“Moments of destiny lie ahead of us. The aid that the President of the United States promised to the brave people of Iran has now arrived. This is a humanitarian intervention; and its target is the Islamic Republic, its repressive apparatus, and its machinery of slaughter—not the country and great nation of Iran,” Pahlavi said in an address shared on social media, where he declared that “the Islamic Republic is collapsing.”
Trump signaled the campaign could last at least a week and potentially go on for longer.

“The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!” he wrote on Truth Social.

Senior administration officials briefed reporters on the hours leading up to “Operation Epic Fury,” and indicated Iran’s missile inventory posed “an intolerable risk to the United States.”

The US had “indicators” that Tehran was going to launch a preemptive strike against American assets in the region, pointing to Iran’s retaliatory strikes on US bases in the region as proof.

“The president decided he was not going to sit back and allow American forces in the region to absorb attacks from conventional missiles. We had analysis that basically told us, if we sat back and waited to get hit first, the amount of casualties and damage would be substantially higher than if we acted in a preemptive, defensive way to prevent those launches from occurring,” the official said.

Another senior administration official described the final talks in Geneva with Iranian officials and revealed the astonishing offer the Americans made.

“One of the things we offered – we said, we will give you free nuclear fuel forever,” the official said. “And they basically said that didn’t work for them. They needed to enrich uranium.”

Experts believe strikes will continue until Iranian defenses are down and the US and Israel gain unrestricted control of the skies.

“This is a major campaign designed to set the conditions for regime collapse,” Gen. Jack Keane told Fox News, describing the US and Israeli forces as the “two most proven militaries in the world.”

The initial onslaught was “clearly heavy duty,” and signaled regime change, said Joel Rayburn, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who served as special envoy for Syria during Trump’s first term.

“The preemptive wave has been even more extensive than I’d have thought,” Rayburn told The Post.

It does look like they are striking targets that include regime leadership and the regime’s ability to defend itself – not just from US and Israel attacks, but from a popular uprising,” he said.

To the last point, Trump directly addressed the Iranian people:  “Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass.”

Additional reporting by: Gabrielle Fahmy, Shane Galvin, Ryan King, Geoff Earle, and Ella Morrison

With Post Wire Services