The Iran Attack: How the US and Israel Tracked down and Killed Ayatollah Khamenei. Usually, at that time, they do not attack / To whom they showed the photo

The first wave of the US-Israeli bombing of Iran took place in the light, which amazed. Even Trump said that there may be loss of life of American soldiers. Why did they do it, though, at a time when the attackers were also vulnerable? Both the Israelis and the Americans confessed to the international media that they then had “a window of opportunity”. What did this consist of?

• The intelligence services of Israel and the US learned of a last-minute meeting of the Iranian leadership, which gathered in Tehran. What happened since then.

For 24 hours after the attack on Saturday morning, no Iranian official has addressed his own people. This reinforced suspicions that many of the military or political leaders were dead. The list of eliminated bosses was announced first by the Israeli army and then by the Americans.

As for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the ayatollah's death was announced as certain by Donald Trump after Netanyahu said there were growing signs the Iranian leader was “no more”. It was only hours later that the state media in Tehran confirmed it. The Iranian regime had been saying all day that “Ali Khamenei is in command of the war.”

They attacked in the early hours of the first day of work, according to the Iranian work week

How did the US and Iran remove one of the world's longest-serving dictators? How did they spot him?

The working week in Iran starts on Saturday. The weekend is Thursday and Friday. The week lasts from Saturday to Wednesday. And just then, in the early hours of the week, in the light, they attacked, although this also put the attackers at risk.

Combined US and Israeli forces had been preparing the attack for months, an Israeli military official said. The attack was prepared at night, as they did in 2025 during the 12-day war against nuclear facilities.

Last minute information

But at the last minute, the US and Israel found out about the meeting in Tehran “of military leaders and intelligence structures”. A large group of Iran's commanders gathered in the early hours of the first working day, Saturday, February 28, 2026. That's when the US and Israel made the decision to attack.

It came so unexpectedly that even President Trump didn't get to the White House operations room. Trump watched it all from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida residence, according to photos released by the White House.

As for Ali Khamenei, he was in his Tehran office in a fortified location. They found out. The building was targeted in the first wave of attacks. The fortifications did not withstand the rocket attack.

We obtained the first known satellite image of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's compound in Tehran. There are several destroyed buildings. While the current whereabouts of Iran's supreme leader are unknown, the compound is generally used as his official residence. 🛰️📸: @Airbus pic.twitter.com/48krjclMBL

— Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) February 28, 2026

But the certainty of the Iranian leader's death came only when images of his body were seen by Israel's military and political leaders. “A photo of the body was shown to Netanyahu and Trump,” Israel's Channel 12 was quoted as saying.

The question that hangs over Sunday, the first day without Khamenei, is what will Iranians do, especially the residents of the big cities, because Iran is a country of 90 million citizens, almost 79% of whom live in cities?

The evolution of the events can be followed LIVE on HotNews.