Iran-Israel conflict: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and family hiding in underground bunker, says report

Iran Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been in an underground bunker since Israel launched attacks on Tehran's nuclear facilities, according to media reports.

According to a report by Iran International, all members of Khamenei’s family, including his son, Mojtaba, are also with him.

The revelation comes amid an AP report claiming that US President Donald Trump rejected an Israeli plan to eliminate Khamenei.

The Iranian death toll in four days of Israeli strikes had reached at least 224, with 90% of the casualties reported to be civilians, an Iranian health ministry spokesperson said.

The report also claimed that Sunday’s Israeli airstrike on the city of Mashhad in Iran was a warning to Khamenei that he is not safe anywhere in the country.

A report by News18 quoted Iran International saying that Israel could have eliminated Khamenei on the first night of the operation, but the Israeli government chose to keep him alive to give him a final chance to decide on completely dismantling the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment programme.

The military exchanges between Israel and Iran overnight entered its fourth day on Monday. The strikes hit residential areas, killing and wounding civilians, as global leaders voiced alarm over the conflict between the two warring enemies spilling into the wider Middle Eastern region.

On Sunday, Israeli strikes reportedly killed the intelligence chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Kazem.

In retaliation for Friday's preemptive attack, Iran unleashed waves of missiles at Israel over the weekend, killing 10 people, including children, and bringing the overall toll to 13 dead and 380 wounded. Iran's health ministry, meanwhile, said that at least 230 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since Friday.

This follows Israel's large-scale attacks on Friday aimed at crippling Iran's nuclear and military infrastructure, sparking retaliation.

Tehran has called off the sixth round of negotiations set for Sunday in Oman, saying it would not attend talks with Washington as long as Israel kept up its attacks.

US President Donald Trump has urged Iran and Israel to "make a deal," but suggested they might need to "fight it out" first.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Iran's Islamic regime had pinpointed Trump as a threat to its nuclear programme and actively worked to assassinate him.
"They want to kill him. He's enemy number one," he said, as quoted by Fox News. "He's a decisive leader. He never took the path that others took to try to bargain with them in a way that is weak, giving them basically a pathway to enrich uranium, which means a pathway to the bomb, padding it with billions and billions of dollars," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu told Fox News that he was also a target of the regime after a missile was fired into the bedroom window of his home.