Smoke Near Iran’s Supreme Leader Headquarters… Where Is Khamenei?

An Israeli “preemptive” strike on Iran has set parts of the Iranian capital ablaze and sent columns of smoke rising near the headquarters of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, raising questions about his whereabouts and fate.

On Saturday, Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced that it had carried out a “preemptive strike” against Iran, as air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem and residents received a “highly critical alert” warning on their mobile phones.

In a statement, the ministry said: “The State of Israel has launched a preemptive strike against Iran. Defense Minister Israel Katz has declared a special and immediate state of alert throughout the country.”

Where Is Khamenei?

In a statement to Reuters, an unnamed Iranian official said that the Supreme Leader was not in Tehran and had been transferred to a secure location.

While the extent of the damage caused by the strike in Iran remains unclear, Agence France-Presse journalists observed two thick columns of smoke rising Saturday morning from two different neighborhoods in Tehran after hearing a rumbling sound whose source has not yet been identified.

The local ISNA news agency reported that one of the smoke columns was rising from the vicinity of the Pasteur district, where the headquarters of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Iranian presidency are located in central Tehran.