$200 billion empire. Proxy wars across 7 countries. 1,500+ protesters killed. Tehran celebrates.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran for 36 years, is dead. Killed in a joint US-Israeli missile strike on his Tehran compound during Operation Epic Fury on February 28, 2026.
A senior Israeli official confirmed to Reuters that Khamenei's body was recovered from the destroyed compound. Netanyahu was reportedly shown images of the body. Trump told NBC News: "The people that make all the decisions, most of them are gone."
Iran's state media initially claimed he was "steadfast and firm in commanding the field." But witnesses in Tehran reported something that told a different story: loud cheers echoed across the city. Residents took to windows, applauded, and played celebratory music.
The people he ruled for three decades were dancing on the news of his death.
This is the full story of who Khamenei was, how he ruled, what he built, what he destroyed, and why his death changes everything.
Ali Hosseini Khamenei was born on April 19, 1939, in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city and one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam. His father, Javad Khamenei, was a cleric of modest means born in Najaf, Iraq. The family was not wealthy. By Khamenei's own account, they often went without proper food.
He studied at the Khorasan Seminary in Mashhad, then moved to Qom in 1958 - Iran's religious capital - where he attended classes under Ruhollah Khomeini, the man who would later lead the revolution that changed Iran forever. Khamenei was not Khomeini's brightest student. But he was loyal. And in revolutionary politics, loyalty beats brilliance every time.
Through the 1960s and 1970s, Khamenei became involved in opposition to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He was arrested six times and exiled for three years. An attempted assassination in 1981 left his right arm permanently paralyzed - a wound he wore as a badge of revolutionary credibility for the rest of his life.
Khamenei married Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh in 1964. They had six children. But while Khamenei projected an image of pious modesty - living in a simple house with simple furniture - his family tells a very different story.
| Name | Role | Notable |
|---|---|---|
| Mojtaba Khamenei | Rumored successor, power broker | Controls key IRGC relationships. Widely believed to manage family's political network. Under US sanctions. |
| Mostafa Khamenei | Cleric, academic | Teaches at Qom Seminary. Lower profile than Mojtaba. |
| Masoud Khamenei | Engineer | Has kept distance from politics. |
| 3 daughters | Private | Married to regime-connected families. |
The term "aghazadeh" - children of the elite - became a swear word in Iran. While ordinary Iranians suffered under sanctions and inflation, the children and grandchildren of regime figures lived in luxury. Mojtaba Khamenei in particular has been the subject of explosive allegations: a global property empire, political manipulation, and control of billions funneled through Setad and IRGC-connected entities.
Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani publicly referenced billions controlled by the Khamenei family in 2016. His son was sentenced to a decade in prison for corruption shortly after - widely seen as direct retaliation.
Khamenei did not take a salary. He lived modestly. This was the image. The reality was Setad.
Setad - officially "Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam" - was created in 1989 by Ayatollah Khomeini as a temporary body to resolve disputes over seized assets after the revolution. It was supposed to last two years.
Khamenei never dismantled it. He expanded it into one of the most powerful economic forces in the Middle East.
Setad's portfolio includes banks, farms, cement companies, a contraceptives manufacturer, apartments seized from Iranians living abroad, telecommunications firms, and pharmaceutical companies. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described it as Khamenei's personal "off-the-books hedge fund."
The organization acquired assets through what Reuters documented as "mafia-like tactics" - seizing property from dissidents, minorities, and Iranians abroad. The proceeds went directly to the Supreme Leader's office.
Meanwhile, one-third of Iran's population lived below the poverty line.
Iran sits on the world's second-largest natural gas reserves and fourth-largest proven oil reserves. It should be one of the wealthiest nations on Earth. Instead, under Khamenei's 36-year reign, it became a case study in squandered potential.
International sanctions - imposed primarily over Iran's nuclear program and support for terrorism - devastated the economy. But sanctions alone don't explain Iran's collapse. Other sanctioned nations have adapted. Iran's problem was that sanctions revenue losses were replaced by nothing, because the regime's priority was never economic development. It was military power and regional influence.
| Recipient | Annual Funding (est.) | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Hezbollah (Lebanon) | $700M - $1B | Military, social services, political operations |
| Hamas (Palestine) | $100M+ | Military wing, rockets, tunnels |
| Houthis (Yemen) | $100M+ | Weapons, drones, missiles (Red Sea attacks) |
| Iraqi Militias (PMF) | $100M+ | Political influence, anti-US operations |
| Assad Regime (Syria) | $5B+ (cumulative) | Military support during civil war |
| IRGC (domestic) | $20B+ budget | Missile program, nuclear facilities, internal security |
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies estimated Iran spent $16 billion annually supporting proxies and rogue regimes. That's $16 billion a year not spent on hospitals, schools, infrastructure, or jobs for the 90 million people Khamenei claimed to serve.
Khamenei's signature foreign policy achievement - or catastrophe, depending on who you ask - was the "Axis of Resistance." A network of armed proxy groups spanning Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and beyond.
The concept was simple: Iran couldn't fight the US or Israel directly. So it would fight through others. Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hamas in Gaza. Houthis in Yemen. Shia militias in Iraq. All funded, trained, and armed by Iran's IRGC Quds Force.
This network gave Iran outsized influence across the Middle East. It also meant that every major conflict in the region had Iranian fingerprints on it. The Syrian civil war (350,000+ dead). The Yemen crisis (377,000+ dead). The Gaza wars. The Red Sea shipping attacks.
Khamenei's proxies projected power. They also created the enemies that ultimately killed him.
Khamenei's treatment of dissent was not subtle. It was brutal, systematic, and escalating.
Journalists, bloggers, and activists were routinely imprisoned for "insulting the Supreme Leader" - charges often paired with blasphemy. Sentences included lashing and years in prison. Some died in custody.
The morality police enforced mandatory hijab. Women who resisted were beaten, arrested, and sometimes killed. Mahsa Amini became the symbol, but she was not the first and would not be the last.
Khamenei publicly issued a fatwa forbidding nuclear weapons. He called them "un-Islamic." Western intelligence agencies were never convinced.
Under his rule, Iran built a vast nuclear infrastructure: enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow (the latter buried under a mountain), a heavy water reactor at Arak, and research facilities across the country. Iran enriched uranium to 60% purity - a short technical step from the 90% needed for weapons.
The 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal briefly slowed the program. After the US withdrew in 2018, Iran steadily expanded enrichment. By 2025, the IAEA estimated Iran had enough enriched material for multiple weapons if further processed.
The nuclear program was ultimately a key factor in the decision to strike.
Operation Epic Fury - a joint US-Israeli military operation - launched in the early hours of February 28. It was the most ambitious attack on Iran in decades.
Multiple waves of strikes hit Iranian targets across the country. Nuclear facilities. IRGC command centers. Air defense systems. Government compounds.
Khamenei's compound in Tehran was hit in the first wave. Israeli intelligence confirmed his death and the recovery of his body. Five to ten other top Iranian leaders who were meeting with him were also killed, according to a senior US defense official speaking to Fox News.
Iran struck back - launching retaliatory attacks across nine countries including the UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. 85 schoolgirls were killed in Minab. Civilians died in Abu Dhabi. The Houthis resumed Red Sea attacks.
But the command structure was decapitated.
At approximately 11 PM Tehran time, as reports of Khamenei's death spread, something remarkable happened.
Iranians celebrated.
Witnesses described cheers echoing across Tehran. Residents opened windows, applauded, and played music. Videos posted to social media showed people dancing in the streets of the capital.
This was not the reaction of a people mourning their leader. This was the reaction of a people who felt they had been freed from a prison.
A military-intelligence apparatus that projected Iranian power from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. A nuclear program that brought the world's superpowers to the negotiating table. A theocratic system that survived 36 years of sanctions, protests, wars, and internal dissent.
The economic potential of 90 million people sitting on top of the world's largest gas reserves. The freedom of Iranian women, students, journalists, and artists. The lives of thousands of protesters who dared to speak. The stability of an entire region, set ablaze by proxy wars funded with money that should have built schools and hospitals.
Khamenei leaves behind a country with 43% inflation, mass poverty, a collapsed currency, international isolation, and a military infrastructure in ruins after February 28.
He also leaves behind a people who danced when he died.
The succession question is immediate. Mojtaba Khamenei, his son, was widely considered the likely successor. Whether the Assembly of Experts can even convene after the strikes is unclear. The IRGC may attempt to maintain control through martial law. Or Iran may be heading toward something nobody predicted: change.
For the first time in 47 years - since the 1979 revolution - Iran is without a Supreme Leader.
The people in the streets of Tehran seem to know what that means.
This article will be updated as the situation develops.