Iranian media reported on Saturday that the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is alive and leading the country's defense operations in response to the military operation launched this morning by the United States and Israel against Iran. 'An informed source announced that the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is in the command room and directing the operations,' the Iranian Tasnim agency reported. The Fars agency cited the pro-Iranian Lebanese outlet Al Mayadeen in disseminating similar information. Since the start of the military operation, the highest-ranking Iranian official to appear on state television has been the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ismail Baghaei, who denounced on state television that the United States has broken its commitments. Iranian media have indeed disseminated information about the good health of their leaders and have assured that the President of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, and the head of Iran's judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, are well, among others. Later, the president issued a statement condemning 'the cowardly attack of the American and Zionist aggressors' against a girls' school in the southern city of Minab, where 83 people have died and nearly a hundred have been injured, according to Iranian authorities. Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, did appear on the US NBC News channel to affirm that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is alive 'as far as I know'. The complex of buildings where Khamenei resides was hit in the attacks, according to satellite images verified by the BBC. Araghchi did inform that military commanders died in the bombings, but noted that high-ranking government officials survived. During the twelve-day war in June, Israel killed at least thirty high-ranking Iranian military officials in the first days of the conflict.
