Amid Strikes on Iran, a Search for Its Supreme Leader

Questions mounted on Saturday over the whereabouts of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after US and Israeli forces carried out daytime strikes on the Iranian capital of Tehran, with an early hit reported near his central offices there, per NDTV. A source told Reuters that Khamenei had already been moved from the city to a secure site, but they offered no details on where he is or when he left.

The strikes mark the start of what President Trump called "large-scale military action against Iran," announced in an eight-minute video on social media. He said the goal is to neutralize what Washington views as immediate threats from Tehran, accusing the regime of decades of hostility toward the US and its allies. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel launched a preemptive attack to remove threats to his country.

The operation follows weeks of rising tension over Iran's nuclear and missile programs, with Trump just a day earlier signaling he was "not happy" with the situation and pointedly refusing to rule out regime change. Axios and Al Jazeera have more on the backstory of Khameini, 86, who has ruled as Iran's supreme leader since 1989, after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died.