India, June 3 -- Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is alive and increasingly taking part in the country's affairs despite remaining out of public view since taking office, US state secretary Marco Rubio has said.

There were signs that Khamenei, who was wounded in US-Israeli attacks on Iran earlier this year, was playing a more active role behind the scenes, Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"I think there are indications out there that he is increasingly engaging at some level," Rubio told lawmakers. Track updates about the war on Iran here

Khamenei, 56, was crowned Supreme Leader after his father, Ali Khamenei, was assassinated by the US and Israel in the first wave of strikes on February 28.

Retaliatory Iranian...