{"id":63173,"date":"2026-02-28T17:36:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T22:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63173"},"modified":"2026-02-28T17:36:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T22:36:54","slug":"on-saturday-february-28-2026-president-donald-trump-declared-that-iranian-supreme-leader-ayatollah-ali-khamenei-is-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/02\/28\/on-saturday-february-28-2026-president-donald-trump-declared-that-iranian-supreme-leader-ayatollah-ali-khamenei-is-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"On Saturday, February 28, 2026, President Donald Trump declared that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Saturday, February 28, 2026, President Donald Trump declared that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead following a massive joint military operation by the U.S. and Israel, dubbed &#8220;Operation Epic Fury.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"353353\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #353353;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/download-3-3.webp?resize=275%2C183&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-63174 not-transparent\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the situation is still unfolding, here is the current breakdown of the reports and the surrounding context:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Declaration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Trump made the announcement via Truth Social and subsequent interviews with NBC and ABC News, stating:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>&#8220;Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead.&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He claimed that the Supreme Leader was unable to evade &#8220;highly sophisticated tracking systems&#8221; and was killed along with a significant portion of Iran\u2019s senior leadership.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Trump described the strike as &#8220;very powerful&#8221; and characterized the event as the &#8220;single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Details of the Operation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The military action involved a multi-day operation that began with a salvo of ship-launched Tomahawk missiles and air-launched munitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Targeting:<\/strong> U.S. officials indicated that while the U.S. focused on Iran&#8217;s ballistic missile and nuclear infrastructure, Israel specifically targeted Iranian leadership compounds.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Scope:<\/strong> Strikes hit multiple cities including Tehran, Tabriz, and Isfahan. Satellite imagery reportedly shows heavy damage to Khamenei&#8217;s secure compound in the capital.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Collateral:<\/strong> Other high-ranking officials reported killed include Ali Shamkhani (a top advisor) and Mohammad Shirazi (head of the military bureau).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Conflicting Reports and Verification<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of now, there is no independent or official confirmation from within the Iranian government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Iranian Denial:<\/strong> State-linked media agencies, such as Tasnim and Mehr, have denied the reports, claiming Khamenei remains &#8220;steadfast and firm in commanding the field.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>International Stance:<\/strong> The UN Secretary-General has stated he is &#8220;not in a position&#8221; to confirm the reports.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Regional Reaction:<\/strong> Reports have emerged of celebrations in parts of Tehran, while pro-Iran protests have broken out in Baghdad.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Saturday, February 28, 2026, President Donald Trump declared that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead following a massive joint military operation by the U.S. and Israel, dubbed&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"17","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDJcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTMtMy53ZWJwP2ZpdD0yNzUlMkMxODMmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJPbiBTYXR1cmRheSwgRmVicnVhcnkgMjgsIDIwMjYsIFByZXNpZGVudCBEb25hbGQgVHJ1bXAgZGVjbGFyZWQgdGhhdCBJcmFuaWFuIFN1cHJlbWUgTGVhZGVyIEF5YXRvbGxhaCBBbGkgS2hhbWVuZWkgaXMgZGVhZCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.mnp1EYaYrXozoq6PPodzvv18mv8hT6QYPIBof_UKQYYMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[13854],"class_list":["post-63173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-iranian-supreme-leader-ayatollah-ali-khamenei-is-dead"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63175,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63173\/revisions\/63175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}