Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Saturday that recent Israel and U.S. strikes may have killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and urged Iranians to take to the streets and “finish the job.”
There were many signs indicating Khamenei "is no longer," Netanyahu said without explicitly confirming his death.
He said Khamenei's compound had been destroyed and Revolutionary Guard commanders and senior nuclear officials had been destroyed.
Earlier, Iran's al-Alam television has said Khamenei would speak but no such speech was aired by late Saturday.
The United States and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday, targeting its top leaders and calling for the overthrow of its government, while Iran responded with missiles fired at Israel and neighboring Gulf countries.
President Donald Trump, who in the biggest foreign-policy gamble of his presidency launched the war against a foe Washington has jousted with for generations, said the strikes were aimed at ending a security threat and ensuring Iran could not develop a nuclear weapon.
He called on Iranian security forces to lay down their weapons and invited Iranians to topple their government once the bombing ended.
Tehran called the strikes, which began in the morning hours and hit targets in different areas of the country, unprovoked and illegal.
In cities across Iran, explosions caused widespread panic. Residents rushed to collect children from school and flee areas that might be targeted.
"We are scared, we are terrified. My children are shaking, we have nowhere to go, we will die here," mother-of-two Minou, 32, said weeping as she spoke to Reuters by phone from the northern city of Tabriz.
