By Phil Stewart, Parisa Hafezi, Maayan Lubell and Andrew Mills
WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM/DUBAI/DOHA, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The United States and Israel launched the most ambitious attack on Iran in decades on Saturday, and U.S. President Donald Trump said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in the operation.
A senior Israeli official told Reuters earlier that the Iranian leader's body had been found after a strike and Trump said the U.S. worked closely with Israel to target the man who led Iran since 1989. Iranian news agencies Tasnim and Mehr, however, reported that the supreme leader was "steadfast and firm in commanding the field."
Iran called the strikes unprovoked and illegal and responded with missiles fired at Israel and at least seven other countries, including Gulf states that host U.S. bases.
Trump, who made the biggest foreign-policy gamble of his presidency after campaigning for reelection as a "peace president," said the strikes were aimed at ending a decades-long threat from Iran and ensuring it could not develop a nuclear weapon.
Intelligence and tracking systems kept track of Khamenei's whereabouts, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, adding that "there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do."
Trump reiterated calls for Iranians to topple the government but warned: "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!"
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said Khamenei's compound had been destroyed.
Three sources familiar with the matter said Iranian Defence Minister Amir Nasirzadeh and Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammed Pakpour were killed in the Israeli attacks. Israel's military said it had confirmed that five other senior military commanders were among the dead, including Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader. Iranian media had said Khamenei's son-in-law and daughter-in-law were also killed.
'WE ARE TERRIFIED'
In cities across Iran, explosions caused widespread panic.
"We are scared, we are terrified. My children are shaking, we have nowhere to go, we will die here," mother-of-two Minou, 32, said weeping as she spoke to Reuters by phone from the northern city of Tabriz.
After confronting hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks in response, the Pentagon said there were no U.S. deaths or injuries.
The U.S. military named the campaign Operation Epic Fury.
Iran warned that the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage through which around a fifth of global oil consumption passes, had been closed. Traders expected a sharp jump in oil prices. Airlines cancelled flights in the Middle East.
Tehran promised a stronger response to come, with a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, Ebrahim Jabbari, saying it had so far used only "scrap missiles" and would soon unveil previously unseen weapons.
The U.N. Security Council was due to meet in New York on Saturday. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
Israel's military said some 200 fighter jets had completed the largest flying mission in its history, hitting 500 targets throughout Iran, including strategic defence systems already damaged in strikes last year.
A girls' primary school in the southern Iranian town of Minab was hit, killing 85 people, according to the local prosecutor cited by state media. Reuters could not independently confirm the reports. Israel's military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
TRUMP SAYS 'BOMBS WILL BE DROPPING EVERYWHERE'
In a video message on social media, Trump cited Washington's decades-old dispute with Iran and Iranian attacks, dating to the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran during the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Trump said the aim was "eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime". He urged Iranians to stay sheltered because "bombs will be dropping everywhere," but added: "When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations."
But he faced pushback from opposition Democrats, and a few of his fellow Republicans in the U.S. government, who said a prolonged campaign against Iran would be illegal without congressional approval and that lawmakers should vote within days.
Iran's clerical leaders were already in a difficult position after mass anti-government demonstrations in January, which led to a crackdown in which thousands of people were killed in the worst domestic unrest since the era of the 1979 revolution.
Protesters had again taken to the streets in recent days in remembrance of those killed the previous month.
Israeli military operations over the past two years had already killed some of Iran's senior military officials and severely weakened several of Tehran's once-feared proxy forces across the Middle East.
After Israel pounded Iran in a 12-day air war in June, joined by the United States, the U.S. and Israel had warned they would strike again if Iran pressed ahead with its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
Eyal Zamir, the Israeli armed forces chief of staff, said that over the past months, he had been involved in preparing joint battle plans against Iran in coordination with senior leaders in the U.S. military.
MISSILES FIRED AT ARAB GULF STATES
Oil markets have been closely watching the standoff. Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy, predicted prices could shoot up by $10 to $20 per barrel when markets open on Monday, if there is no sign of de-escalation.
Iran, the third-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumps about 4% of global oil supplies, and a far larger share is shipped past its coast through the strait leading out of the Gulf.
In Israel, sirens and mobile-phone warnings sent Israelis rushing to air raid shelters as Iran launched a series of missile barrages that were mostly intercepted, though some missiles hit.
Emergency teams in Tel Aviv treated at least 20 people hurt by a missile that hit a residential building, Israel's ambulance service said. Photos from the scene showed one side of the multi-storey building blown out and its roof caved in.
Loud booms sounded in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, an oil producer and close U.S. ally, and several blasts were heard in the business capital Dubai, where one of the city's plush hotel districts was also hit.
Nada AlGarhy, 30, said she and her husband had been at the Waldorf Astoria hotel on Dubai's luxury Palm development for Iftar, the evening meal during the fasting month of Ramadan, when they heard a loud explosion.
Bahrain said the service centre of the U.S. Fifth Fleet - base for American naval forces in the region - had been subjected to a missile attack. Video footage showed a thick grey plume of smoke rising from near the island state's coastline.
Qatar said it had downed all missiles targeting the country and that it had a right to respond. Kuwait confirmed a missile attack on a U.S. military base there.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Michael Georgy, James MacKenzie and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Barbara Lewis, Sam Holmes, Timothy Heritage, Peter Graff, Sergio Non, Rod Nickel Cynthia Osterman)
