Trump: Ayatollah Khamenei has been killed

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square

President Donald Trump Saturday afternoon Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been killed.

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote on social media.

Iran’s supreme leader was one of the targets of the U.S. and Israeli srikes inside Iran early Saturday.

“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,” Trump continued. “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.”

Khamenei, 86, ruled Iran with an iron fist since 1989. In recent months, under his leadership, Iranian forces arrested and even killed an unknown number of Iranian citizens protesting the authoritarian regime.

Trump further wrote that intelligence indicates that many in the Iranian military and police “no longer want to fight.”

“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!,’ Trump wrote. “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!”

Earlier in the day. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were “signs” that the leader of the Islamic Republic was killed during airstrikes on Khamenei’s compound.

“There are many signs that Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei is no longer alive,” Netanyahu said during an address Saturday.

Since the strikes began, there has not been any communication from the supreme leader, Netanyahu said.