Kamal Ghorui
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed there are “growing signs that this dictator is gone”, suggesting that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei may have been killed in sweeping US-Israeli strikes on Tehran.In a nationally televised address, Netanyahu said one of the first targets was Khamenei’s compound in the Iranian capital. “There are growing signs that the tyrant is no longer alive,” he told Israelis, hours after explosions were reported near the offices of the 86-year-old cleric.The Israeli leader said the operation had eliminated senior commanders in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), high-ranking regime officials and leading nuclear scientists. “This morning we eliminated IRGC commanders, senior Iranian regime officials, senior nuclear officials,” he said, adding that “in the coming days, we will hit thousands of targets of the terror regime”.The joint assault, described by US President Donald Trump as a “massive operation”, marked one of the most direct attacks on Iran’s leadership in decades. Trump said the objective was to destroy Iran’s military capabilities and remove the threat of it acquiring a nuclear weapon. About 12 hours after the strikes began, the US military reported no American casualties despite what it called “hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks”.Iranian state media, citing the Red Crescent, said at least 201 people had been killed and more than 700 injured. Tehran retaliated with missiles and drones aimed at Israel and at US military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. Exchanges of fire continued into the night.Earlier, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told NBC News that Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian were alive “as far as I know”, calling the attack “unprovoked, illegal and absolutely illegitimate”.Netanyahu, however, framed the campaign as a turning point. Israel had gone to war to “fundamentally change” the situation in which Iran was nearing a nuclear weapon, he said. The operation would continue “as long as necessary”, and “stamina is necessary”.In an unusual direct appeal to Iranians, he urged them to seize what he called a “once in a generation chance” to overthrow the regime. “Take to the streets en masse,” he said. “It is high time you come together and unite for a historic mission.”Thanking Trump for his “historic leadership”, Netanyahu said the campaign would ultimately “lead to peace, true peace” — even as the region braces for further escalation.
