Iran’s newly appointed Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is reportedly wounded and likely disfigured, raising questions about his ability to govern amid nearly two weeks of US and Israeli military strikes, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday, news agency Reuters reported.
No images of Khamenei have been released since an Israeli strike at the start of the conflict that killed several members of his family, including his father and wife. His first public comments since the attacks came in a written statement read by a television presenter on Thursday, in which he vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and urged neighboring countries to shut US bases on their soil or risk Iranian retaliation.
“We know the new so-called not-so-supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured. He put out a statement yesterday,a weak one, actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement,” Hegseth said during a briefing. “Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why. His father—dead. He’s scared, he’s injured, he’s on the run and he lacks legitimacy.”
Reuters has said that an Iranian official told the agency on Wednesday that the new supreme leader had been lightly injured but was continuing to operate, after state television described him as war-wounded.
Hegseth, joined by General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, emphasised that US military strikes are focused on disabling Iran’s missile and drone capabilities, as well as its naval assets. Despite these operations, reports indicate that Iranian drones continue to operate over Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, Bahrain, and Oman.
Separately, four US service members were killed on Friday when a US military refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq. The Pentagon said the incident involved another aircraft but was not the result of hostile or friendly fire. Since US and Israeli operations against Iran began on February 28, 11 US troops have died in the conflict.