As Iran’s second supreme leader, he brutally crushed dissent at home and expanded Iran’s footprint abroad, challenging Saudi Arabia for regional dominance.
Waves of retaliatory strikes were reported in Israel and across several Gulf countries on Saturday. The Emirati government said at least one person was killed from falling missile debris.
Some Iranians said on social media that they were privately mourning the supreme leader. But displays of exuberance broke out in cities across the country.
President Trump has declared that Iran’s supreme leader was dead. If that is true, the next question is which of his possible successors might carry on his work.
At least one gathering of senior officials and military leaders was hit, but it was not immediately clear whether the effort to kill them had succeeded.
The strike on an elementary school in the southern Iran town of Minab was one of two attacks that appear to have hit schools during U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday.