US–Israel Strike on Iran Kills Supreme Leader Khamenei

The US and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February, 2026, a day after talks between Washington and Tehran in Geneva over Iran’s nuclear enrichment program ended without any success.

• Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel and the United States have started a joint operation against the Islamic Republic, which has been named Operation ‘Lion’s Roar’.
• However, for the same operation, the US has named it ‘Epic Fury’. This title was officially decided by the Department of Defense and was publicly announced by President Donald Trump.
• The White House is pressuring Iran to abandon nuclear enrichment, which has long been a matter of concern for Israel and a major point of dispute with the West. The Islamic regime said that it will never do so.
• In the attacks, several political officials and senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed. Among the first confirmed people killed in the attack were 51 people who died in a girls’ school in Minab in Iran’s Hormozgan province.
• Iran carried out a retaliatory attack The Islamic Republic carried out retaliatory attacks on Washington’s regional allies – UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar – all of which have US military bases.
• According to a 2024 report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the US has eight permanent bases and 11 other military sites in the Middle East. At least one person was killed in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

About previous operations

• This is not the first time Israel has used lion-themed operation names. In June 2025, when Israel carried out an air strike on Iran, it named the operation ‘Rising Lion’.
• Last year, when the US carried out a similar strike against Iran, it named the strike ‘Operation Hammer’.

About Iran’s mission ‘Fateh Khyber’

• Iran has responded to the US and Israeli strikes by launching the first wave of its ballistic missiles towards Israel, which it has named ‘Fateh Khyber’ and linked with “Operation True Promise 4”.
• This year, Iran named the operation after the Battle of Khaybar, using it as a symbol of victory, in which ‘Fateh’ means victory. Last year, Iran had named its missile retaliatory strike ‘Operation True Promise III’.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed

• Iran’s state media confirmed on 1 March, 2026 that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in US-Israel air strikes. His death occurred after a combined air strike by the US and Israel, which targeted Iranian military and government locations. A 40-day state mourning has been declared in Iran.
• According to reports from Iran’s state television, Iran’s Chief of Army Staff and Defense Minister were also killed in the air strike that targeted a meeting of the country’s Defense Council.
• General Abdul Rahim Mousavi and Defense Minister General Aziz Nasirzadeh were killed in the meeting along with the head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and security adviser Ali Shamkhani. Iran’s state media announced the deaths of military leaders today.
• Iran’s state media reported at least 201 people killed and more than 700 injured. Reports say that about 40 Iranian officials were also killed in the attacks.
• In response, Iran carried out attacks across West Asia. Reports of Iranian attacks have come from Dubai, Doha, Bahrain and Kuwait, places where US military bases exist or are linked to the US.

Senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Alireza Arafi became Iran’s interim Supreme Leader

• After the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the US-Israel joint airstrike, senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Alireza Arafi will serve as the country’s interim Supreme Leader.
• Iranian state media said that after Khamenei’s death, the country has activated Article 111 of its constitution, which has initiated an emergency leadership arrangement in which a three-member council will exercise the powers of the Supreme Leader until a permanent successor is chosen.
• Ayatollah Alireza Arafi has been made the legal member of this interim leadership council, who is responsible for carrying out the functions of the Supreme Leader during the transition period until a successor is chosen under Iran’s constitutional process.