The former Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike on Saturday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The strike targeted a compound in Tehran where Khamenei was attending a meeting, intelligence gathered by the CIA indicated.
The strikes, dubbed “Operation Epic Fury” by U.S. Central Command, commenced at 1:15 am ET on February 28th and have, according to a U.S. Military fact sheet, targeted over 1,250 locations across Iran in the first two days. The stated objective is to “dismantle the Iranian regime’s security apparatus, prioritizing locations that pose an imminent threat.”
Satellite imagery collected by the U.S. Spatial intelligence firm Vantor reveals significant damage to multiple sites across Iran. Among them is the Natanz nuclear complex, previously targeted in June of last year. While the extent of damage from those earlier strikes remains unclear, President Trump has asserted they “obliterated” three nuclear sites and set back Iran’s nuclear program “basically decades.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi countered in January, stating that while facilities and machines were destroyed, “the technology cannot be bombed, and the determination also cannot be bombed.” Recent satellite images from late January showed evidence of Iran attempting to salvage materials from the Natanz facility by constructing roofs over damaged buildings.
The Choqa Balk-e drone facility in western Iran, known for its production of Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones, also sustained damage in the recent strikes. Satellite imagery from February 27th and March 2nd clearly depicts the destruction at the facility.
Further east, a radar system at Zahedan airbase, located near Iran’s borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, was completely destroyed. Satellite images show the system intact on February 26th and reduced to rubble by March 1st.
The strikes come as the U.S. Military continues “large-scale combat operations in Iran,” according to President Trump, who stated Monday that the operation could last “four to five weeks,” with the capability to extend further. U.S. Central Command reported striking over 1,250 targets within the first 48 hours of the operation, impacting over 130 cities throughout the country, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
The Israel Defense Forces reported Monday that an additional 600 “terrorist infrastructures of the Iranian regime have been attacked so far.”
