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Hello and welcome to Newsout from the BBC World Service.

We're coming to you live from the BBC studios in London.

I'm Sean Lay.

It is already past midnight in Iran, about 15 hours since Israel and the United States began

missile strikes against the Iranians.

Both countries say they hope this will be the catalyst for Iranians to bring down the

Islamic Republic after 47 years.

Israel claims its strikes have killed the country's supreme leader. Israel says its air force

continues to operate inside Iran. New explosions were reported across Iran on Saturday evening.

But it's those first attacks on Tehran, whose targets included the leadership compound,

that led Israel in the last couple of hours to confirm rumours swelling for much of the day that in its judgment the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hamanae was dead. This was Prime Minister

Benyaminnettor Niahu. He's been revoiced by a translator. Today, in a very powerful

surprise attack, we managed to destroy the compound of the tyrant Khomeinae. For three and a half

decades, this brutal and cruel tyrant who fought the entire world and made its own people miserable, was constantly trying to eradicate Israel.

This plan no longer exists. And all indications show that this tyrant is no longer with us as well. We manage to

target senior members of the nuclear operation as well as senior officials and we're going to

continue and hit thousands of targets within this terrorist regime and we are helping the courageous Iranian people to unshackle

themselves from the shackles of tyranny. Israeli officials later briefed journalists, they had seen

images of Ali Hamanae's body. There has been no independent verification, but Iranian state TV

has issued a denial.

The Supreme Leader's fate, therefore, remains unclear.

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