Jubilant cheers filled the streets of Iran as citizens celebrated news of the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with celebratory music, dancing and fireworks.
Iran has not yet confirmed anything, but US President Donald Trump said “Khamenei, one of the worst people in history, is dead”.
Social media is flooded with visuals of Iranians blaring music, cheering, clapping and honking their horns to celebrate the news. The AFP news agency verified the video.
According to multiple witnesses and video footage, the celebrations began before Trump’s post.
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In many videos circulating on social media, loud cheers could be heard in parts of Tehran as residents went to their windows to clap and play loud music.
Viral videos showed loud, sustained booing, cheering and fireworks.
Celebrations were held in Tehran, the nearby city of Karaj and the central city of Isfahan, Reuters reported. Viral videos showed celebrations in other places such as Shiraz and Abdanan.
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Iranian activist and journalist Masih Alinejad posted one such video with the message: “Video of Iranian people celebrating in Iran, am I dreaming? Hello, new world.”
In another video, Alinejad said: “Every morning I wake up and read that Ali Khamenei is killing my people. But this is the first morning in my life when I get good news and I want to run. I just want to run, scream and shout for joy.”
Iranians were also seen carrying photos of protesters killed in a deadly crackdown on mass anti-government protests last month.
According to AFP, however, Iranians are not yet fully taking to the streets en masse to celebrate, because they are afraid after the anti-government demonstrations in January.
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Iranians in America are celebrating
Iranians in Los Angeles also took to the streets to celebrate Khamenei’s death on Saturday and join protests in support of US and Israeli strikes against Iran in the North American diaspora.
“It’s mixed feelings,” a protester in Toronto told AFP. “It seems that this brutal regime will be gone, but at the same time I am very worried about the people of Iran.”
The protester said he hoped “the people of Iran will now have the courage to take to the streets and try to overthrow” the government.
“Evil” Khamenei is dead
“Khamenei, one of the worst people in history, is dead,” Trump wrote in a post on the social network. He warned of “heavy and precise bombardment” that he said would continue throughout the week and beyond, part of a deadly strike that the US justified as necessary to disable the country’s nuclear capabilities.
The killing of Khamenei in the Trump administration’s second attack on Iran in eight months seemed certain to create a leadership vacuum, given the absence of a known successor and the fact that the supreme leader has had the final say on all major policies during his decade in power.
