Initial Israeli strikes targeted some 30 key Iranian leaders; 30 bombs said dropped on Khamenei’s compound

Israel’s initial strikes on Iran this morning reportedly targeted some 30 key Iranian regime leaders and military chiefs, headed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Israeli officials have been widely quoted asserting that Khamenei was likely killed — in what is believed to be the first time Israel has directly sought to kill a serving head of a sovereign state — but there has been no official Israeli comment on this. Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has said Khamenei is alive “as far as I know.”

An unsourced Channel 12 news report says Israel, having coordinated with the US, dropped some 30 bombs on Khamenei’s compound, and that Khamenei was underground at the location, but not in one of the two deepest bunkers that only US bombs could have penetrated. This report also claims Khamenei’s military secretary was killed, and unspecified members of Khamenei’s family. Satellite imagery has shown the compound largely destroyed.

Hezbollah had previously threatened to enter the fighting if Khamenei were to be targeted.

Israel’s Kan state broadcaster reports that there are indications that Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei — who was expected by many to succeed his father — has also been killed.

As previously reported, Israeli sources say the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, and Iranian defense minister Aziz Nasirzadeh were killed in the strikes. President Masoud Pezeshkian was also targeted, as were key Iranian intelligence chiefs.

In addition, Channel 12 news now says that the Iranian army chief, Sayyid Abdolrahim Mousavi, was targeted, as was a leading potential successor to Khamenei, Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

Ali Shamkhani, a former IRGC Navy chief and Iranian army chief, was also targeted, and, according to unconfirmed reports by Iran International, killed. Israel targeted him in last June’s war, and initially believed it had killed him.

Also targeted was Esmail Qaani, head of the IRGC’s al-Quds force, and the IRGC’s Air Force chief Majid Mousavi, who oversees Iran’s ballistic missile attacks.

In all, some 30 key regime leaders and military commanders were targeted in the initial Israeli strikes, Channel 12 says, perhaps hyperbolically reporting that “30 were targeted in 30 seconds.”