Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei dead after IDF strike hits Tehran compound, Israeli source confirms

Iran’s militant and unyielding ultimate leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the Islamic Republic for much than 3 decades and oversaw an epoch of harsh interior repression and confrontation with the United States and Israel, has died pursuing the Israeli onslaught successful Tehran, arsenic his compound was reduced to rubble, a elder Israeli authoritative told Fox News Digital.

"Khamenei was the modern Middle East’s longest-serving autocrat. He did not get to beryllium that mode by being a gambler. Khamenei was an ideologue, but 1 who ruthlessly pursued the preservation and extortion of his ideology, often taking 2 steps guardant and 1 measurement back," Behnam Ben Taleblu, elder manager of FDD’s Iran program, told Fox News Digital. 

"Khamenei’s worldview was shaped by his militant anti-Americanism and antisemitism, which archetypal manifested itself successful his protests against the Shah of Iran," helium added.

View of Iranian President Ali Khamenei during a welcoming ceremonial for his State Visit, Beijing, China, May 11, 1989.  ( Forrest Anderson/Getty Images)

Born April 19, 1939, successful Mashhad, eastbound Iran, Khamenei was among the Islamist activists who played a cardinal relation successful the 1979 gyration that overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. A adjacent state of Iran’s archetypal ultimate leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenei roseate done the caller strategy and served arsenic president from 1981 to 1989 earlier becoming ultimate person aft Khomeini’s decease that aforesaid year.

Decades successful power, Khamenei consolidated power implicit Iran’s governmental and information system, presiding implicit repeated crackdowns connected dissent and maintaining a hardline posture toward Washington and Jerusalem.

"Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regularisation has been marked by unrelenting brutality and repression, some wrong Iran and beyond its borders," said Lisa Daftari, an adept connected Iran and editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk. She pointed to executions and the enforcement of strict societal controls arsenic defining features of the strategy nether Khamenei’s leadership.

His ultra-conservative benignant of enactment did look challenges, however. In 2009, pursuing disputed elections successful which Khamenei declared triumph for the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, monolithic protests erupted crossed the country.

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In this photograph taken by an idiosyncratic not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP extracurricular Iran, Iranians protests the decease of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini aft she was detained by the morality police, successful Tehran, Oct. 1, 2022. (The Associated Press)

Mass demonstrations besides broke retired successful 2022 aft Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, died portion detained by the morality constabulary for allegedly wearing her headscarf improperly. The protests were brutally enactment down, with galore of those arrested and enactment to decease by his regime.

In precocious December, Iran was again rocked by protests and a fierce brutal information response. According to an Iran International investigation, arsenic galore arsenic 30,000 radical whitethorn person been killed crossed 2 days, Jan. 8 to 9, 2026.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (L) meets the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei during his sojourn successful Tehran, Iran connected Oct. 22, 2016.  (Pool / Supreme Leader Press Office/Anadolu Agency/Getty Image)

International monitors and rights groups person repeatedly documented precocious execution numbers successful Iran successful caller years arsenic well. Amnesty International said Iranian authorities executed much than 1,000 radical successful 2025, calling it the highest yearly fig the enactment recorded successful astatine slightest 15 years. Separately, a U.N. study said Iran executed astatine slightest 975 radical successful 2024, the highest fig since 2015.

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Iranians stitchery portion blocking a thoroughfare during a protestation successful Tehran, Iran connected Jan. 9, 2026.   (MAHSA / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

Across the region, Khamenei invested heavy successful Iran’s web of allied militias and equipped groups, a strategy utilized to task Iranian powerfulness beyond its borders. From the West Bank and Gaza, wherever helium backed panic groups specified arsenic Hamas, to Hezbollah successful Lebanon and Houthi extremists successful Yemen, arsenic good arsenic different militant militias successful Iraq, Iran nether Khamenei’s spent hundreds of millions of dollars connected the panic groups.

However, his prized proxies, arsenic good arsenic the authorities of Bashar al-Assad successful Syria, collapsed nether Israeli subject unit pursuing the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. During a 12-day warfare successful June 2025, Israel besides succeeded successful taking retired immoderate of Khamenei’s closest aides and elder information figures, leaving the long-serving person importantly weakened.

Yet analysts reason that Khamenei’s astir enduring bequest whitethorn beryllium the organization machinery helium built astatine location to safeguard the system.

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Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei makes archetypal nationalist quality successful weeks with caller U.S. threats. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader Credit/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

A caller study by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), authored by Saeid Golkar and Kasra Aarabi, describes the Bayt, the Office of the Supreme Leader, arsenic a parallel operation embedded crossed Iran’s military, economy, spiritual institutions and bureaucracy.

In an interrogation with Fox News Digital, Aarabi said, "It is the hidden nervus halfway of the authorities successful Iran… it operates arsenic a authorities wrong a state." He argued that adjacent Khamenei’s removal would not needfully dismantle the system. "Even if helium is eliminated, the Bayt arsenic an instauration enables the Supreme Leader to function," Aarabi said, adding, "Think of the Supreme Leader arsenic an instauration alternatively than conscionable a azygous individual."

Aarabi besides warned that "eliminating Khamenei successful isolation connected its ain is not enough," calling for a broader strategy aimed astatine the wider apparatus surrounding the ultimate leader. "You person to dismantle this extended apparatus that helium has created," helium said.

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"Unlike Khomeini, the founding begetter of the Islamic Republic, Khamenei institutionalized his power. Today, the Islamic Republic is much a merchandise of Khamenei than Khomeini," FDD’s Ben Taleblu added.

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