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Iran's Ali Khamenei killed in US-Israel attack

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Theresa Tropper
March 1, 2026

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei presided over a complex theocratic system that was enforced brutally at home, and sought to influence the exercise of power in other Middle Eastern countries.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rose from young cleric to Iran’s  supreme leader, shaping the Islamic Republic for decades. He expanded state control, empowered the Revolutionary Guard and crushed mass protests, from the 2009 Green Movement to the 2022 uprising. In 2025, amid Israeli and U.S. strikes, he vanished from public view, leaving a power vacuum.

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