Donald Trump has said that Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei – “one of the most evil people in history” – is dead.
“This is not only justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
He said of Khamenei: “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.”
“This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country,” Trump went on.
Washington is hearing that many among the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, military and other security and police forces “no longer want to fight”, Trump claimed. He suggested he would now be willing to give them “immunity”.
Significantly, the US president also said that “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue “uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective”.
We still do not have independent verification, and Trump has not given any evidence for this statement of Khamenei’s death.
Here is what the US president posted on Truth Social in full:
Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead. 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. 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. This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country. 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. As I said last night, “Now they can have Immunity, later they only get Death!” Hopefully, the IRGC and Police will peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots, and work together as a unit to bring back the Country to the Greatness it deserves. 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. 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!
One dead at Abu Dhabi's Zayed International Airport, authorities say
One person has been killed and seven injured at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport according to a statement from the airport in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
As the UAE is claiming to have successfully intercept almost all of the drones and missiles fired at the country from Iran, the statement attributed the damage to “falling debris, which resulted in one fatality of an Asian national” after the interception of an attack drone.
Trump still plans to attend fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago as war rages in the Middle East
Robert Mackey
Donald Trump launched his regime change war on Iran from a makeshift situation room at his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, and, according to the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, he plans to continue with his social schedule for the evening, as missiles and drones rain down on countries across the Middle East.
“President Trump still intends to stop by the fundraiser being held at Mar-a-Lago this evening for the Republican Party, which is more important than ever,” Leavitt told the pool reporters at Mar-a-Lago, who have not seen the president since he arrived at his resort on Friday evening.
Donald Trump monitored the attack on Iran from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday, with, from left, the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles and other aides including Dan Scavino, Trump’s former golf caddy who now oversees the president’s social media posting. Photograph: The White House/Reuters
Images of the makeshift secure area at the club, constructed by hanging black drapes around a conference area with a wood ceiling, were mocked on social networks as falling far short of the requirements for a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, where US officials typically discuss classified information.
“Calling it ‘the situation room at Mar-a-Lago’ doesn’t morph that blanket fort into a SCIF,” Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor turned podcaster observed.
UAE defense ministry says it intercepted most of 346 missiles or drones fired at its territory by Iran
The United Arab Emirates said in a statement that it had intercepted the vast majority of the 137 missiles and 209 drones fired at its territory by Iran in the hours after the US and Israel launched a regime-change war on the Islamic republic.
According to the statement posted online by the UAE’s defense ministry, 132 missiles and 195 drones were successfully intercepted.
The UAE hosts about 5,000 US military personnel at al-Dhafra air base, just outside Abu Dhabi.
“The ministry expressed that it is on high alert and readiness to deal with any threats, and that it is taking all necessary measures to firmly confront everything that targets the disruption of the country’s security and stability, and affirmed that the safety of citizens, residents and visitors represents an utmost priority that cannot be compromised,” the ministry said in the statement posted on Instagram.
Marjorie Taylor Greene: ‘This is not what we thought MAGA was supposed to be. Shame!’
Robert Mackey
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former Republican congresswoman from Georgia, has denounced the attack on Iran as a betrayal of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement in a series of social media posts on Saturday.
“I did not campaign for this. I did not donate money for this. I did not vote for this, in elections or Congress. This is heartbreaking and tragic. And how many more innocent will die? What about our own military? This is not what we thought MAGA was supposed to be. Shame!” Greene wrote in one post, which included video of a ruined school, where dozens of children were killed in a strike according to Iranian authorities.
Greene, who broke with the president and resigned over her support for a law that required the justice department to release files from the investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender Trump socialized with for nearly two decades, also posted a longer statement denouncing the attack on X, illustrated by a screenshot of a Republican campaign plea from 2024 urging voters to “Vote the pro-peace ticket. Vote Trump-Vance”.
Above that image of the two men she campaigned for, Greene wrote:
We said “No More Foreign Wars, No More Regime Change!” We said it on rally stage after rally stage, speech after speech. Trump, Vance, basically the entire admin campaigned on it and promised to put America FIRST and Make America Great Again. My generation has been let down, abused, and used by our government our entire adult lives and our children’s generation is literally being abandoned. Thousands and thousands of Americans from my generation have been killed and injured in never ending pointless foreign wars and we said no more. But we are freeing the Iranian people. Please. There are 93 million people in Iran, let them liberate themselves. But Iran is on the verge of having nuclear weapons. Yeah sure. We have been spoon fed that line for decades and Trump told us all that his bombing this past summer completely wiped it all out. It’s always a lie and it’s always America Last. But it feels like the worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different and said no more.
Later in the day, Greene shared posts from other social media skeptics of the attack who noted that, even as Trump cited Iran’s nuclear program as a cause of war, the White House website still includes a page from last June headlined: “Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Have Been Obliterated — and Suggestions Otherwise are Fake News”, and argued that the attack was an attempt to distract the American people from the scandal of the president’s long friendship with the late ex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
One of the posts Green shared on Saturday read, in all-caps: “EVEN IF YOU START A NUCLEAR WAR, WE WILL CRAWL OUT OF THE ASHES AS SEVEN-LEGGED MUTANTS DEMANDING THE RELEASE OF THE EPSTEIN FILES.”
One person dead and 22 injured after Iranian strike on Tel Aviv
Fran Lawther
One person has died and 22 others are injured after an Iranian missile strike hit a building in Tel Aviv, according to media reports.
The Tel Aviv district’s fire and rescue commander said the building partially collapsed after the attack and that a fire had broken out, according to Haaretz. Eight people were reportedly rescued, and search efforts continue.
An explosion as a missile hits a building in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photograph: Tomer Neuberg/AP
An Israeli rescuer carries a child after a missile attack from Iran hit in Tel Aviv. Photograph: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP
Emergency services at the scene after a building was struck by a Iranian missile in Tel Aviv. Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA
In case anyone was in any doubt, US secretary of state Marco Rubio has canceled his trip to Israel early next week, the state department said, pointing to “the current situation”.
Death toll in Israeli attack on Iranian girls' elementary school rises to 108
The Mizan news agency, quoting the Minab prosecutor’s office, has reported that the number of casualties at the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran, has risen to 108.
A man holds a child’s backpack as rescue workers and residents search the rubble in the aftermath of an Israeli-US strike on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran. Photograph: AP
Ali Khamenei, the bloodthirsty Zahhak [a powerful evil figure in Persian mythology]of our time, the killer of tens of thousands of Iran’s bravest sons and daughters, has been erased from the pages of history. With his death, the Islamic Republic has effectively come to an end and will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.
Pahlavi has lived in exile in the US since his father was overthrown during the 1979 Iranian revolution.
He urged Iranian officials not to appoint a successor to Khamenei, and warned the military, security and police forces that it was their “last chance” to join the people, saying:
Any attempt by the remnants of the regime to appoint a successor to Khamenei is doomed to failure from the outset. Whoever they place in his stead will have neither legitimacy nor survival; and without doubt, they will also be complicit in the crimes of this regime.
To the military, security, and police forces: Any effort to prop up a collapsing regime is condemned to defeat. This is your last chance to join the people; to help ensure Iran’s stable transition to a free and prosperous future; and to have a share in building that future. …
This marks the beginning of our great national celebration; but it is not the end of the road,.
The White House earlier called a lid on Donald Trump’s public schedule, so it’s unlikely that he will make an official public appearance for the rest of the day.
Four people injured after 'incident' at Dubai’s airport that caused 'minor damage'
Four people were injured after an incident occurred at Dubai international airport, the Dubai media office has said, as Iran continued to launch retaliatory strikes on US bases in the region.
“Dubai Airports confirms that a concourse at Dubai International (DXB) sustained minor damage in an incident, which was quickly contained,” the media office said on X, without giving further details.
Donald Trump has said that Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei – “one of the most evil people in history” – is dead.
“This is not only justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
He said of Khamenei: “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.”
“This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country,” Trump went on.
Washington is hearing that many among the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, military and other security and police forces “no longer want to fight”, Trump claimed. He suggested he would now be willing to give them “immunity”.
Significantly, the US president also said that “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue “uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective”.
We still do not have independent verification, and Trump has not given any evidence for this statement of Khamenei’s death.
Here is what the US president posted on Truth Social in full:
Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead. 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. 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. This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country. 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. As I said last night, “Now they can have Immunity, later they only get Death!” Hopefully, the IRGC and Police will peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots, and work together as a unit to bring back the Country to the Greatness it deserves. 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. 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!
Hundreds of protesters have gathered around the White House after the US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran. Several dozen demonstrations opposing the strikes were planned in cities across the United States as part of a national day of action today.
Social media footage of the scene outside the White House shows a separate demonstration in support of the attack, with people holding American flags or Lion and Sun Iranian flags, many with pictures of Reza Pahlavi – the exiled son of Iran’s last shah.
Protesters rally against the US and Israeli bombing of Iran outside the White House on 28 February. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA
National guard members watch as people protest near the White House against US and Israeli strikes on Iran. Photograph: Allison Robbert/AP
Protesters rally against the US and Israeli bombing of Iran in Washington DC. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA
Donald Trump has spoken with the leaders of the UK, Kuwait and Turkey, White House press secretary KarolineLeavitt has said in a post on social media.
Downing Street confirmed that Trump and Keir Starmer had discussed the situation in the Middle East over the phone this evening. It said:
The prime minister set out that the UK was taking part in coordinated regional defensive operations to protect British people and regional partners following Iran’s indiscriminate retaliatory strikes on allies in the region.
Earlier, Leavitt confirmed that Trump had spoken to the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, as well as Nato secretary general Mark Rutte about the strikes on Iran.
UN secretary general 'not in a position' to confirm reports on Iran's supreme leader
UN secretary general António Guterres addressed the UN security council at an emergency meeting a few moments ago. He said he is “not in a position to confirm”Israelimedia reports that Iran’s supreme leader had been killed.
Guterres also said he “deeply regrets” that the opportunity for diplomacy had been “squandered” over Iran.
António Guterres speaks during a United Nations security council meeting after the US. and Israel launched strikes on Iran. Photograph: Heather Khalifa/Reuters
