Khamenei is dead. The Supreme Leader of the
Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the man
who ruled Iran with an iron fist for 35 years, is dead, killed in
a joint United States and Israeli strike in the opening
hours of Operation Epic Fury. This changes everything.
It is Sunday, March 1st, 2026. 24 hours have passed since the
United States and Israel launched the most significant
military operation in the Middle East in a generation.
And in those 24 hours, the world has changed in ways that would
have seemed unimaginable just days ago.
This is episode 2 of Epic Fury, the US Iran War podcast.
Let's get straight into it. Let's start with the single
biggest development of the last 24 hours, the confirmed death of
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic
of Iran. President Trump confirmed the
news himself on Truth Social. He wrote Khamenei, one of the
most evil people in history, is dead.
Iranian state media subsequently confirmed the death.
Iran's President Mehsud Posseshkian appeared on state
television on Sunday and announced that a new interim
leadership council had begun its work following the death of the
supreme leader. The Iranian government declared
40 days of national mourning. Let that land for a moment.
The supreme leader of Iran is dead, 86 years old.
A man who had ruled the Islamic Republic since 1989, a man who
had survived decades of crippling international
sanctions, the assassination of those closest to him, and two
previous rounds of military strikes from the United States
and Israel. Gone Killed In the opening hours
of a joint operation that had been months in the planning,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation.
He said this morning with a surprising hit.
We struck the tyrant common A For three decades he has been
sending terror through his proxies and has made his own
people miserable while continuing to talk about the
extermination of the state of Israel.
This plan and program no longer exists.
This tyrant no longer exists. Trump, speaking to reporters,
went further. He told the Iranian people
directly. When we are finished, take over
your government. It will be yours to take.
This will be probably your only chance for generations.
And it was not just common a not even close.
The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed on Sunday morning that
40 senior Iranian commanders have been killed since the
launch of Operation Epic Fury. The list of the dead reads like
the entire senior leadership of the Islamic Republic.
Abdarahim Mousavi, the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed
Forces. Muhammad Pakpur, the commander
of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard core ground forces.
Emir Hadami, the defense minister who oversaw Iran's long
range missile production and its nuclear weapons research.
Gallem Hossein, Mohsenia J, the head of Iran's judiciary.
Salah Saadi, head of intelligence for Iran's
Emergency Command. Mohammad Shahrazi, head the
military office of Khamenei, himself, a position he had held
since 1989. Hossein Jabal Emilian, chairman
of the SPND, Iran's Organization for Defensive Innovation and
Research, the body widely believed to coordinate Iran's
covert nuclear weapons work, and Reza Mosafari, NIA, another
senior figure within Iran's nuclear weapons and defense
research structure. Also killed was Mohammed Nasiri,
an official in the Ministry of Intelligence, and Golem
Razeruzian, the head of the Intelligence Department of
Faraja, Iran's law enforcement command.
The IDF stated that the majority of the highest ranking senior
military officials of the Iranian security leadership had
been eliminated. This was not just a military
campaign, this was a deliberate, systematic and total
decapitation of Iran's entire command structure, executed
simultaneously in a matter of hours.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not hold back in his
assessment. He said the Iranian regime had
their chance, yet refused to make a deal, and now they are
suffering the consequences. For almost 50 years, Iran has
targeted and killed Americans, always seeking the world's most
powerful weapons to further their radical cause.
Last night, unlike any previous president, President Trump began
dealing with his cancer. He called Operation Epic Fury
the most lethal, most complex and most precision aerial
operation in history. He added the United States did
not start this conflict, but we will finish it.
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz also defended the
operation. He said this is a moment in
history that requires moral clarity and President Trump has
met the moment. The most fundamental duty of any
sovereign government is the protection of its people.
Operation Epic Fury is directed towards specific and strategic
objectives to dismantle missile capabilities that threaten
allies, to degrade naval assets used to destabilize
international waters, to disrupt the machinery that arms proxy
malicious, and to ensure the Iranian regime never ever can
threaten the world with a nuclear weapon.
Now let's talk about the military hardware behind this
operation because the scale of what was deployed is
extraordinary. Operation Epic Fury was launched
from 2 United States aircraft carrier strike groups
simultaneously, the USS Abraham Lincoln operating in the North
Arabian Sea and the USS Gerald R Ford.
The United States had also pre positioned F22 stealth fighters,
F-30 Fives and Boeing KC135 and KC46 aerial refueling tankers to
Israel in the weeks before the strikes began.
United States Central Command described the initial strikes as
involving precision munitions launched from air, land and sea.
And then came a detail that stopped many analysts in their
tracks. CENTCOM announced that Task
Force Scorpion Strike deployed one way attack drones modeled
after Iran's own Shahid drones for the first time in history,
CENTCOM posted These low cost drones are now delivering
American made retribution. the United States used Iran's own
drone design against Iran. United States Central Command
described the overall scope of the operation as the largest
regional concentration of American military firepower in a
generation. On the naval front, CENTCOM
confirmed that United States forces sank an Iranian Navy
jammer and class Corvette at its birthing in Shabbahar Port on
the Gulf of Oman. The ship, they said, is now at
the bottom of the Gulf of Oman. Now let's talk about the nuclear
sites because this is at the heart of why this operation was
launched. According to analysis from the
Center for Strategic and International Studies, the
United States struck the Iran Atomic Energy Agency
headquarters in Tehran. The explosive research and
testing facility at Parchin was struck.
Multiple nuclear sites in Isfahan were hit, the uranium
enrichment facility at Ferdow was targeted, missile storage
facilities in calm was struck, launch infrastructure into
Breeze was hit, and air defense systems, including radar arrays
across western and central Iran were destroyed.
But there is one site that has become the most sensitive and
dangerous aspect of this entire operation.
The Buscher nuclear reactor operated with Russian
assistance. Russia's state Atomic Energy
corporation, Rosa Tom evacuated nearly 100 staff from Iran on
Sunday, though some personnel remain on site to keep the
reactor running. Any strike on that reactor would
pose significant radiological risks and would almost certainly
cause a major diplomatic crisis if Russian personnel were caught
up in it. As of Sunday morning, there were
some reports of explosions in the port city of Butcher, but no
confirmed strikes directly on the reactor itself.
Now let's talk about the single most painful and most
controversial element of the 1st 24 hours, the Minnab School
airstrike in the city of Minnab in southern Iran, a girls
elementary school was struck. The death toll from that single
incident has continued to climb throughout the day.
It began at 40, it rose to 85. And as of the latest reports
available on Sunday, the casualty figure from the Minnab
School airstrike has reached 148 deaths.
Children, 148 children killed in a single strike.
The local governor confirmed the figure.
The Iranian Red Crescent also reported explosions near
hospitals in Tehran and near its peace building.
This is the detail that has galvanized the international
condemnation of the operation, even from countries that support
its stated objectives. The United Nations Secretary
General Antonio Guterres released a statement condemning
the military escalation. He said the use of force by the
United States and Israel against Iran and the subsequent
retaliation by Iran across the region undermine international
peace and security. He called for an immediate
cessation of hostilities. Now let's talk about a major
claim from Iran and the United States military's response to
it. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps announced on Sunday that it had struck the USS Abraham
Lincoln aircraft carrier with four ballistic missiles, calling
it a new phase of its battle against the American Zionist
enemy. the United States military's response was
immediate and unambiguous. CENTCOM, posted in capital
letters claims to have struck USS Abraham Lincoln with
ballistic missiles. The Lincoln was not hit.
The missiles launch did not even come close.
The Lincoln continues to launch aircraft in support of Centcom's
relentless campaign to defend the American people.
Now let's talk about American casualties because this is
deeply significant. United States Central Command
announced on Sunday morning that three American service members
have been killed in action and five were seriously wounded as
part of Operation Epic Fury. Several others sustained minor
shrapnel injuries and concussions.
The identities of those killed are being withheld pending
notification of families. These are the 1st combat
fatalities suffered by United States military personnel under
President Trump since he returned to office last year.
Trump had warned this was possible.
He said the lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and
we may have casualties. That often happens in war.
But we are doing this not for now.
We are doing this for the future and it is a noble mission.
Trump told CNB CS Joe Kernan on Sunday that the operation was
moving along very well, very well, ahead of schedule.
Now let's talk about Iran's retaliation because Tehran has
responded with staggering scale and breadth.
Iran designated its retaliatory campaign operation True Promise,
for since the operation began, Iran launched 165 ballistic
missiles, 2 cruise missiles, and 541 drones toward Israel alone.
152 ballistic missiles, both cruise missiles and 506 drones
were intercepted by Israeli air defenses. 13 ballistic missiles
fell into the sea, but 35 drones fell within Israeli territory,
causing material damage and casualties. 6 people were killed
when Iranian missiles struck the city of Bait Shemesh, just 19
miles from Jerusalem. 23 people were taken to hospital.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited the scene.
Netanyahu, speaking from the roof of IDF headquarters in Tel
Aviv with the sound of air raid sirens in the background, said
these are painful days and sent condolences to the families of
those killed. Beyond Israel, 282 Iranian
missiles and 833 drones were intercepted by Kuwaiti, Qatari,
Bahraini and Emirati air defense forces.
Countries targeted by Iran included Jordan, Syria, Kuwait,
Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab
Emirates. In the UAE, one person was
killed and seven were injured when a drone targeted Zayed
International Airport. In Abu Dhabi, debris caused a
minor fire on the outer facade of the Burj Al Arab hotel.
In Dubai. One of the births, at Dubai's
Jebel Ali port caught fire. A concourse at Dubai
International Airport was damaged in Kuwait.
Iran struck Kuwait International Airport in Oman, the country
that had been mediating nuclear talks just days earlier.
A drone struck the primary port, injuring a dock worker.
Iran also struck the United States Fifth Fleet's
headquarters in Manama, Bahrain and the United States Al Yudiyid
Air Base in Qatar, the largest American military installation
in the Middle East. The IRGC announced a fresh large
scale offensive wave on Sunday. Blasts were heard in Riyadh,
Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Manama, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which had previously committed
only to intercepting Iranian salvos while refusing to allow
offensive use of their airspace, issued statements on Sunday
signaling A willingness to respond directly.
Saudi Arabia stated it will take all necessary measures to defend
its security and protect its territory, citizens and
residents, including with the option of responding to the
aggression. The UAE said similarly it was
prepared to respond. Trump responded to Iran's
threats on Truth Social, he wrote.
Iran just stated that they're going to hit very hard today,
harder than they have ever been hit before.
They better not do that, however, because if they do, we
will hit them with a force that has never been seen before.
In a phone interview with Axios, Trump offered a glimpse of his
strategic thinking. He said I can go long and take
over the whole thing or in it in two or three days and tell the
Iranians see you again in a few years if you start rebuilding.
The Houthis in Yemen announced they were returning to their
campaign of attacks in the Red Sea in solidarity with Iran,
raising the prospect of renewed disruption to one of the world's
most critical shipping lanes. Qadab Hezbollah in Iraq
threatened to begin attacking United States bases in northern
Iraq. Erbil International Airport and
United States Consulate general in Erbil were both struck by
Iranian missiles. The Kurdish Peshmerga declared
they were on alert. At least 14,000 flights have
been cancelled or disrupted across the region.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency issued an
emergency bulletin advising all airlines to avoid the airspace
of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman,
Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad
Airways, El Al, Air India, Indigo, Lufthansa, Wizair and
Virgin Atlantic all suspended operations.
Now let's talk about what is happening inside Iran, because
this is where the story becomes truly historic.
With common aid dead and dozens of senior commanders eliminated,
Iran is in a state of profound political crisis.
Under the Constitution, when a supreme leader dies, an assembly
of experts must convene to choose a successor.
That process is now underway under conditions that have never
existed in the 47 year history of the Islamic Republic.
The country is under active bombardment.
The Internet has been cut since 2:00 in the morning on Saturday,
Most of the military leadership is dead and the streets are
divided. Iran's security chief Ali
Larijani appeared on state television urging Iranians to
unite. He warned that secessionist
groups would not be tolerated and said the transition to a new
supreme leader would begin on Sunday.
He is now the most consequential surviving civilian official in
the Islamic Republic. Among the key survivors are
President Possesskian, parliament speaker Galibaf and
Foreign Minister Arachi. Arachi criticized the United
States and Israel for launching the attack despite ongoing
nuclear negotiations, saying peace had been within reach.
Meanwhile, extraordinary scenes were playing out across Iran
despite the communications blackout.
Videos circulating on social media showed Iranians pouring
into the streets in celebration following news of Khamenei's
death. Scenes of celebration were
reported in Carriage, Kazveen, Shiraz, Kerman, Shah, Isfahan
and Senandj. In southern Iran, a monument
dedicated to Khamenei was torn down, but security forces were
deployed in large numbers and footage showed them opening fire
on celebrants in the streets. At the same time, pro government
rallies were also taking place in multiple cities.
Iran's 80 million people are not monolithic, and how this moment
resolves inside Iran is one of the most consequential and
unpredictable questions on the planet.
Now let's look at the global reaction which has been sweeping
and in many cases deeply divided.
In Washington, the political fault lines deepened.
Democratic Senator John Fetterman broke with much of his
party, praising the operation and saying Trump had been
willing to do what is right and necessary to produce real peace.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton posted that the butcher's bill
had finally come due for the ayatollahs.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham urged America's regional
Arab partners to get behind President Trump and go all in.
But the critics were loud and numerous.
Democratic Senator Mark Kelly said Trump had launched a large
scale military operation against Iran without Congress knowing
the mission or the end goal. Republican Congressman Thomas
Massie said he would work with Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna
to force a congressional vote on the war with Iran, saying the
Constitution requires it. Democratic Senator Bernie
Sanders called it an illegal, premeditated and
unconstitutional war. Congress is expected to vote on
a War Powers Resolution in the coming week.
In France, the government expressed satisfaction at the
death of what it called a bloodthirsty dictator.
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada's position is
clear. The Islamic Republic of Iran is
the principal source of instability and terror in the
Middle East and must never be allowed to obtain or develop
nuclear weapons. Britain's Prime Minister Kier
Starmer convened an emergency Cobra meeting and confirmed
British military aircraft were in the sky for defensive
purposes, noting that Iran had backed more than 20 potentially
lethal attacks on British soil in the past year.
Russia and China both condemned the strikes.
China called the killing of Khamenei a grave violation of
Iran's sovereignty. North Korea condemned what it
called the shameless and gangster like behavior of the
United States and Israel. Egypt's President suicide warned
the Middle East could slide into chaos.
Pakistan saw violent clashes outside the United States
consulate in Karachi, leaving at least nine dead and more than 50
wounded. In Los Angeles, home to the
largest Iranian diaspora outside Iran, crowds gathered outside
the Wilshire Federal Building, carrying Iranian, American and
Israeli flags celebrating what many described as the beginning
of the end of the Islamic Republic.
Gulf states convened an emergency meeting of foreign
ministers to coordinate the unified response.
Now let's think about what all of this means as we move into
day. 324 hours ago, Common A was alive, Iran's command structure
was intact, the region's airports were open, nuclear
talks were ongoing, and Oman's foreign minister was declaring
peace within reach. Today, the Supreme Leader is
dead. 40 Iranian commanders are dead, 148 children are dead in
minup, 3 American service members are dead, 6 Israeli
civilians are dead and bite shimmish.
The region's airspace is largely closed, 14,000 flights have been
disrupted and the bombs are still falling.
Iran's IRGC has vowed its most ferocious offensive yet.
Netanyahu has promised strikes on Tehran will intensify.
Trump says the operation is ahead of schedule.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are signaling they may join the
fight directly. Congress is preparing a war
powers vote. And inside Iran, 10s of millions
of people are living under bombardment with no Internet, no
clear leadership and an uncertain future.
Nobody knows how this ends. But what is certain is this, the
Islamic Republic of Iran, as it has existed for 47 years, is
facing the most severe existential crisis in its
history. Its supreme leader is dead, its
military command is shattered, its people are divided between
mourning and celebration, and the bombs are still falling.
That is episode 2 of Epic Fury, the US Iran War podcast.
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