ISLAMABAD: The Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has been martyred following an attack in Tehran early Saturday morning, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
Iranian state media reported that the 89-year-old Supreme Leader was targeted in a joint strike claimed by Israel and the United States.
Global Influence
Ayatollah Khamenei, who ha
d led the Islamic Republic since 1989, was widely revered by tens of millions of Shia Muslims and supporters across Iran, Pakistan, and around the world. Beyond his political authority, he was regarded as a prominent religious leader whose guidance shaped Iran’s domestic and foreign policy for more than three decades. He previously served as Iran’s President from 1981 to 1989.
Iran’s Reaction
In response, Iran has launched retaliatory strikes against targets across the Middle East, including inside Israel, and on U.S. military bases in many Gulf countries.
Early Life
Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei was born on April 19, 1939, in the holy city of Mashhad, into a modest clerical family. His father, a respected religious scholar, raised him in a household marked by simplicity and devotion to Islamic learning.
From an early age, Khamenei showed a deep inclination toward religious studies and began his formal seminary education in Mashhad before continuing advanced studies in Qom, one of the most important centers of Shia scholarship. As a young seminarian, he was influenced by prominent clerics and became involved in intellectual and political discussions critical of the Shah’s rule.
His youth was shaped by activism, repeated arrests, and periods of exile under the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, experiences that later defined his revolutionary outlook and enduring role in Iran’s political transformation.
