American President Donald Trump on Saturday announced that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in airstrikes coordinated by U.S. and Israeli forces earlier in the day.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump said, “Khamenei, one of the most evil people in history, is dead.”

Mr Khamenei’s death, Mr Trump said, “is not only justice for the people of Iran but also for all great Americans and those people from many countries throughout the world that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty thugs.

The American president said the late Iranian supreme leader “was unable to avoid our intelligence and highly sophisticated tracking systems, and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do.”

He stated, “Hopefully, the IRGC and police will peacefully merge with the Iranian patriots and work together as a unit to bring back the country to the greatness it deserves. That process should soon be starting in that, not only the death of Khamenei, but the country has been, in only one day, very much destroyed and, even, obliterated.

“The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted, throughout the week or as long as necessary to achieve our objective of peace throughout the Middle East and, indeed, the world!”

Earlier on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said there were many signs Mr Khamenei had been killed in the strikes targeted against his residence.