Initial Israeli strikes targeted some key Iranian leaders; 30 bombs dropped in supreme leader’s compound

The IDF struck a major site from which the Islamic Republic has fired dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel.The IDF said that over 200 Israeli Air Force aircraft had struck 500 Iranian targets on Saturday night, in the largest aerial attack ever conducted by Israeli forces.

An IDF video showed two major initial waves of attacks.

The IDF is also working to establish stand in air supremacy which it achieved in June 2025 to be able to keep drones and other aircraft hovering in areas from which Tehran might try to fire on Israel in order to blow up the missile teams before they can fire.Open Menu

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Initial Israeli strikes targeted some key Iranian leaders; 30 bombs dropped

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (left) seen during an address in Tehran on February 17, 2026. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP); Iranian Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani seen in Beirut, Lebanon, August 13, 2025. (Lebanese Parliament / AFP)Share

 

Israel’s initial strikes on Iran this morning reportedly targeted some 30 key Iranian regime leaders and military chiefs, headed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Israeli officials have been widely quoted asserting that Khamenei was likely killed — in what is believed to be the first time Israel has directly sought to kill a serving head of a sovereign state — but there has been no official Israeli comment on this. Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has said Khamenei is alive “as far as I know.”

An unsourced Channel 12 news report says Israel, having coordinated with the US, dropped some 30 bombs on Khamenei’s compound, and that Khamenei was underground at the location, but not in one of the two deepest bunkers that only US bombs could have penetrated. This report also claims Khamenei’s military secretary was killed, and unspecified members of Khamenei’s family. Satellite imagery has shown the compound largely destroyed.