Following a massive joint US-Israeli airstrike that killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, US President Donald Trump warned Tehran against retaliation while suggesting the strike opens a new path for diplomacy.
In a major escalation that has killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and roughly 40 top Islamic Republic officials, the United States and Israel executed a massive joint airstrike on Saturday morning. Vahid Online, a prominent citizen journalism aggregator, reports that US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the commencement of Operation "Epic Wrath", describing it as the deadliest, most complex, and most precise aerial operation in history, designed to destroy Iran's missile and naval infrastructure. Hegseth added that the US did not start the conflict, but will finish it, and has begun treating this cancer unlike any previous administration, according to DW Persian.
The attack involved Israeli fighter jets dropping 30 bombs on Khamenei's residential complex in broad daylight. This timing was chosen because US and Israeli intelligence identified a unique opportunity when three senior political and military meetings were taking place simultaneously, according to fiercely anti-regime outlet Iran International. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officially confirmed Khamenei was killed in his office while performing his duties, Saudi-aligned Al Arabiya Farsi noted.
Following the strikes, President Donald Trump told CBS News that the diplomatic path with Iran is now "much easier than a day ago" because the regime has been put under severe pressure, an outcome he celebrated as a "great day for America and the world", Vahid Online reported. Trump noted that Iran's retaliatory response was less than expected. However, as Tehran promised revenge, Trump took to Truth Social to warn the Islamic Republic that if they strike back harder, the US will hit them with an unprecedented force that has never been seen before, a threat echoed across multiple domestic channels including Khabar Fori and sports channel Varzesh3.
The assassination has exposed sharply divided media narratives. Anti-regime opposition network Iran International celebrated the demise of the regime's leader, stating that Khamenei spent his last nine months in extreme humiliation in an underground hideout. The network asserted that his death proved his corrupt, inefficient, and murderous apparatus survived only by Trump's will, noting that Khamenei had earned the moniker Mouse-Ali for his cowardice after orchestrating the bloodiest slaughter of unarmed civilian protesters in Iranian history.
Conversely, the domestic state-aligned media apparatus has adopted a defiant posture. Following the confirmation of Khamenei's death, French state-broadcaster RFI Farsi reported that the Islamic Republic announced the transition of power had begun, vowing that this great crime will never go unanswered and launching a new wave of missile and drone attacks against Israel and US bases. Domestic state-aligned outlet Akharin Khabar highlighted Trump's lack of a formal public address, noting that unlike previous presidents, he refused to appear openly before the American public to explain his reasons for this act of aggression against Iran.
Behind the scenes, the push for military action was heavily influenced by regional allies. Iran International relayed a Washington Post report revealing that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intensely lobbied Trump over the past month. Bin Salman privately pushed for US military action while publicly supporting diplomacy, warning that without a strike, Iran would grow more dangerous given the unprecedented concentration of US forces in the region.
Sources vary slightly in their timeline of the Iranian retaliatory strikes relative to Trump's public statements, with some channels implying retaliation has already concluded while others state a new wave of attacks has just begun. The reports heavily interweave secondary citations from Western outlets like CBS, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.