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Monday, May 25, 2026
Iranian health official says Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei suffered only ‘superficial’ wounds in Israel strike
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An Iranian health ministry official says the injuries suffered by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes in late February were only “superficial,” offering a rare account of the day he was wounded.
The 56-year-old has not appeared publicly since he was named as Iran’s supreme leader on March 8, issuing only written statements, fuelling speculation about his health.
In March, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Mojtaba was “believed to be alive, wounded and disfigured.”
Mojtaba succeeded his father, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on February 28 that triggered retaliatory Iranian attacks across the region.
Today, health ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour describes the day Mojtaba was wounded and his arrival at a hospital, which he did not identify.
He says Mojtaba arrived at the hospital around 1:00 pm Tehran time on February 28 and “entered the operating room along with several other wounded individuals.”
“Apart from superficial injuries to the face, head and legs, which caused neither amputation nor any particular medical problem, nothing major had happened,” Kermanpour tells ILNA news agency.
“From my perspective as a physician these were not considered serious injuries and required no special procedures apart from one or two stitches.”
The Times of Israel Community.