Iran's supreme leader is killed. What happens now?
Sources & Methods
NPR
4.9 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 28 February 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This comes after Israel and the United States launched missile attacks across Iran targeting the country's top leadership. Iran responded with missile and drone strikes in several countries in the Gulf region.
Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre and NPR international correspondent Daniel Estrin about what this means for the Iranian regime and what might come next.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ayatollah Ali Hamenei is dead. Iran's supreme leader since 1989, killed today by an Israeli strike. |
| 0:10.5 | This amidst an Israeli and U.S. operation that began this morning in the Middle East, what comes next for Iran and for the world? |
| 0:18.7 | This is sources and methods from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly. It's a little |
| 0:24.6 | after 5 p.m. on the East Coast, so about 1.30 in the morning in Tehran. To talk about this moment, |
| 0:31.4 | I'm joined by NPR National Security correspondent Greg Myrie and Daniel Estrin, who was woken up by the sound of |
| 0:39.0 | air raid sirens this morning in Tel Aviv. Hi, Daniel. Hi there. Hey, so Daniel, kick us off. |
| 0:45.7 | The first reports, the first confirmation of Humanei's death came from a source, briefed on the |
| 0:52.6 | strike and who talked to you. Would you just walk us through |
| 0:56.4 | the TikTok today of trying to confirm this really stunning news? Well, what we know is that the |
| 1:03.6 | opening attack that Israel carried out this morning, along with the U.S., included this surprise |
| 1:10.4 | blitz targeting senior Iranian defense officials |
| 1:14.1 | and Israeli military official briefed reporters and said that the U.S. and Israel had been looking |
| 1:20.7 | for the right opportunity and found it. Three different gatherings simultaneously are what Israel struck this morning. |
| 1:29.9 | And initial reports that I was hearing from person briefed was that Iran's supreme leader, |
| 1:37.8 | Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, was killed and he was hit along with Iran's president. So we were trying to chase that news all day. |
| 1:48.2 | And by the evening, Israel confirmed a whole host of top officials killed, including |
| 1:53.3 | Ali Shahmani, the personal advisor of the Supreme Leader, also the commander of the Revolutionary |
| 1:59.3 | Guards, Iran's defense minister, a senior intelligence officer, other people tied to Iran's nuclear weapons program. |
| 2:07.3 | And it was only late at night when the news finally came from President Trump. |
| 2:12.2 | Wait at night where you are there in Israel. |
| 2:14.6 | You mentioned Iran's president, Massoud Peschke, and that he was also targeted. Just |
| 2:19.1 | briefly, do we have any update on the president's status? No update on his status at all. And, yeah, |
... |
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