IRAN - Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been killed in a major assault on Iran launched by Israel and the United States. The Ayatollah’s body, riddled with shrapnel wounds, was recovered from the rubble after a daylight bombing raid aimed at toppling the regime destroyed his Tehran compound. Iranian state TV confirmed Khamenei’s death in the early hours of Sunday morning, hours after it was initially reported by Israeli media and declared on social media by Donald Trump. Israel and the US conducted 900 strikes in 12 hours on military bases, nuclear sites and government buildings across Iran using F-35s, F-22s and – for the first time – one-way attack drones. “The United States did not start this conflict, but we will finish it. If you kill or threaten Americans anywhere in the world — as Iran has — then we will hunt you down, and we will kill you,” he said in a post on X.

MIDDLE EAST - Many Gulf states believe Iran to be a danger to the region and a destabilising force. Saudi Arabia joined Israel in lobbying the US to launch strikes against Iran. Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, argued in favour of an attack during multiple phone calls with Donald Trump in the past month, sources told the Washington Post. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, also continued his long-standing campaign urging the US to join strikes on Iran, the Post reported. Iran has continued its retaliation after the US and Israel launched a barrage of strikes on Saturday morning, killing its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran has so far launched attacks on six of its neighbours, inadvertently uniting the Middle East against the Islamic Republic. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, the Emirati political commentator, told The Telegraph that Iran was the unifying threat bringing Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) nations together, “regardless of differences”. He said: “When things get tough, they come together.”

IRAN - The country’s fate now rests on whether the people can topple the regime before Khamenei is replaced. Now we know why America and Israel chose this moment for their joint onslaught against Iran’s regime. They must have identified a historic and fleeting opportunity to kill the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and bring his 37-year rule to a sudden and violent end. On Saturday evening, following air strikes on the Ayatollah’s compound earlier in the day, Donald Trump said: “Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead”. Before the US president’s announcement, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, had maintained that Khamenei was “safe and sound”. Evidence of his death was presented to Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. Iran eventually confirmed Khamenei’s death on Sunday morning. It appears that the proposition that the Islamic Republic can survive the loss of any single individual will now be tested in the harsh winds of reality.

IRAN - The first missile struck the compound of Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, at 9.55 am Tehran time. As many as twenty-nine more followed shortly after. There could be no doubt about Donald Trump’s mission. This was about taking down the Iranian regime. Mohammed Pakpour, the IRGC chief, was killed, as was Amir Nasirzadeh, Iran’s defence minister. Khamenei’s daughter-in-law and son-in-law were also killed. And then late on Saturday night, Donald Trump announced that Khameni himself was dead. Israel said his body had been pulled from the rubble. “To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or, in the alternative, face certain death.” Then he spoke to the Iranian people. “To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand… when we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”

MIDDLE EAST - Oil prices could jump as high as $100 a barrel if the US conflict with Iran does not end quickly, wreaking havoc on the global economy. As missiles fly over one of the world’s major choke points for oil and gas, Brent crude could surge from the current $73 a barrel – with gas prices following suit. That would stoke inflation in Britain, sapping economic growth and potentially pushing up interest rates. Wider disruptions to commercial shipping and air freight could stack further costs on the UK economy, creating a major headache for Rachel Reeves as she prepares for her Spring Statement on Tuesday. “Even if strikes remain limited, we think Brent crude oil prices might rise to about $80 per barrel,” said William Jackson of Capital Economics. Donald Trump’s attack does not solely hit one of the world’s largest oil producers. It will draw in almost all the Middle East’s major energy players, and will send shockwaves throughout the global shipping industry.

IRAN - The country is now plunged into a period of even greater uncertainty, with eyes on potential successors and the possibility of civil war. As Israeli and American strikes continued into Saturday night, uncertainty over Iran’s future was deepening. The supreme leader may have painted himself as a revolutionary, but he was a brutal and repressive ruler who killed or sidelined every serious opponent he had. This January, he ordered the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and police forces to crack down on protesters who were calling for an end to the regime. According to Iranian activists they killed tens of thousands of people, many of them young pro-democracy protesters. For Khamenei and those around him, anything — including slaughtering their own people — was permissible to ensure the survival of the regime.

IRAN - Critical infrastructure, official news sites, and security communications systems reportedly stopped functioning, leaving the leadership in a communications blackout at home and abroad. As fighter jets and cruise missiles struck IRGC command centers, a parallel front reportedly paralyzed the Islamic Republic from within. Reports on Saturday, February 28, 2026, indicated that Iran entered an almost complete digital fog, in what appeared to be a large-scale cyberattack accompanying Operation “Roar of the Lion.” Western intelligence sources said the damage to the IRGC's communications infrastructure was meant to prevent coordination of counterattacks and disrupt the ability to launch drones and ballistic missiles by Iranian cyber and electronic units. As the regime tried to rely on its isolated “national internet” network, reports suggested it also failed under the pressure of the combined offensive, leaving Iran exposed and isolated during a moment of acute crisis.

MIDDLE EAST - Donald Trump has armed a squadron of kamikaze drones as nuclear negotiations with Iran have collapsed and the prospect of war with Tehran looms. The Pentagon has approved the deployment of an experimental US military drone unit capable of self-detonation, known as Task Force Scorpion, according to Bloomberg. The deadly drone unit is a part of Trump's massive military build-up in the Middle East - the largest since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It comes after diplomatic negotiations between American and Iranian officials collapsed on Thursday in Geneva amid disputes over the Islamic regime's nuclear program.

MIDDLE EAST - From the Bandar Abbas docks, where they once built a replica US aircraft carrier only to destroy it, the Iranian regime’s military planners can cast their eyes over the Strait of Hormuz this week with some measure of satisfaction. In a demonstration of military strength that could prove both key to the regime’s survival and its ultimate suicide, the navy briefly closed the 24-mile strait through which a quarter of the world’s oil and a third of its liquefied natural gas travels. After a handful of drills, tankers slowly chugged through the strait again, but the message to President Trump was clear: bomb Iran at your economic peril. Reports have emerged that Iran has deployed missiles close to the border with Iraq, but Hormuz, and the natural geographic control Iran enjoys over shipping lanes, remain the ace in the hole. A weeks-long blockade could cause China and other countries to press the US into ending the war, calling a ceasefire as it did last June after its attacks on Iran’s key nuclear facilities.

PAKISTAN - Pakistan has declared “open war” with the Taliban after carrying out air strikes on several Afghan provinces. The overnight strikes hit ammunition depots, Taliban military installations and militant hideouts across Afghanistan, Pakistani officials told The Telegraph. The Afghan Taliban also confirmed that multiple locations across the country, including Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia, had been struck. The escalation followed rising tensions between the two countries in recent months, fuelled by accusations that Afghanistan was harbouring elements of the Pakistani Taliban. A Kabul resident told The Telegraph he heard more than a dozen explosions followed by gunfire as a jet flew over the city.