WASHINGTON – Iran’s newly installed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is wounded and likely disfigured, impairing his leadership amid relentless U.S. and Israeli assaults, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asserted Friday, casting doubt on his rule nearly two weeks into the war.
No visuals of Khamenei have surfaced since an Israeli strike early in the conflict killed his father, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, his wife, and much of his family. His debut address on March 12, read by a TV anchor, vowed to seal the Strait of Hormuz and urged neighbors to shutter U.S. bases or face Iranian strikes.
“We know the new so-called not so supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing. “A weak one, actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement… Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why. His father, dead. He’s scared, he’s injured, he’s on the run, and he lacks legitimacy.”
An Iranian official told Reuters on March 11 that Khamenei suffered light injuries but remains operational, following state TV’s report of him as “war-wounded.” Hegseth appeared with Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine, who detailed U.S. strikes crippling Iran’s missile, drone, and naval assets. Yet Iranian drones persist, infiltrating Kuwait, Iraq, UAE, Bahrain, and Oman despite the barrages.
Tragedy struck U.S. forces separately: four service members died Friday when a refueling plane crashed in western Iraq involving another aircraft, no hostile or friendly fire implicated, officials said. The toll since February 28 U.S.-Israeli operations began now stands at 11 American troops killed.