, March 4 -- After more than 40 years as Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in coordinated US and Israeli airstrikes on Saturday morning, along with several senior military officials, including top commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Khamenei, who became supreme leader in 1989 following the death of revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had previously served as Iran's president. His tenure was marked by both domestic upheavals-including protests over election rigging, economic hardship, and human rights abuses-and the country's survival under international sanctions and war with Iraq in the 1980s.

According to US media reports, the CIA had been tracking Khamenei's movements for ...