Iranian supreme leader killed in airstrike, leaving power vacuum atop regime

The death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could dramatically affect power dynamics in the Middle East.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei listens to a speaker in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, on Oct. 20, 2025. | Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who oversaw decades of repressive rule and resistance to the United States, was killed after the U.S. and Israel attacked the Islamist regime, according to President Donald Trump, a move that plunges the country’s future into uncertainty.

The death of the ayatollah, who was 86, leaves a void atop Iran’s Islamist government in the biggest challenge to its nearly 50-year existence. This marks only the second opportunity for change of a supreme leader since the death of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1989. Khamenei’s successor was not immediately clear.

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump declared on Truth Social. “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.”

© Politico