Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been killed on the first day of a massive US and Israeli air strikes on the country, US President Donald Trump has announced.
Iran has not confirmed the death of the 86-year-old ruler of the past three decades - one of the longest in the world.
Iran has had only two supreme leaders since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
It's an all-powerful office - the supreme leader is head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, including the elite Revolutionary Guards.
Khamenei is not quite a dictator, positioned in the middle of a complex web of competing power centres, able to veto any matter of public policy and hand pick candidates for public office.
