Iran's supreme leader the Ayatollah, 86, breaks cover with first appearance since Trump ordered Israel not to kill him
MARKED FOR DEATH Iran's supreme leader the Ayatollah, 86, breaks cover with first appearance since Trump ordered Israel not to kill him
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IRAN'S Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has broken cover for the first time since the 12-day war that saw the US and Israel strike Iran's nuclear sites.
The 85-year-old appeared smiling on Saturday at a packed Tehran mosque - after reports he had spent days in a 'secure location'.
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Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made his first public appearance since the start of the 12-day war
Credit: Getty
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The Iran State Radio and Television (IRIB) building hit by an Israeli strike on June 16
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US President Donald Trump claimed he 'saved' Khamenei 'from a very ugly and ignominious death' by Israel
Credit: Getty
It was Khamenei's first live appearance since war broke out on June 13, when Israeli forces launched a sudden wave of airstrikes on Iran's nuclear sites.
The US joined in days later, bombing three major sites on June 22 - including the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Facility.
Top Iranian military commanders and nuclear scientists were reportedly killed in brutal Israeli strikes, forcing Khamenei to vanish from public view.
Since the air war began, he has given only prerecorded speeches - sparking rumours about his safety.
But footage aired by Iranian state media on Saturday showed the leader smiling and waving to a crowd of chanting supporters at a mosque.
Dozens of people were seen attending the event to mark Ashura - the holiest day of the Shia Muslim calendar.
It comes 11 days after the ceasefire between Iran and Israel.
Khamenei at the time appeared on state TV, boasting that Iran had dealt a 'slap to America's face' with a missile strike on a US airbase in Qatar.
He said: 'The American regime entered a direct war because it felt that if it did not, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed.
"However, it gained no achievements from this war.
Iran's Ayatollah breaks silence after WEEKS cowering in bunker during Israel's blitz and 'obliterating' Trump strikes
'Here, too, the Islamic Republic emerged victorious, and in return, the Islamic Republic delivered a severe slap to America's face.'
US President Donald Trump took to social media to mock the claim and bragged that he had personally blocked an attempt to kill Khamenei.
In a Truth Social post, Trump raged: "I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH.
"And he does not have to say, 'THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!'
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Satellite image of the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Facility in Iran showing damage from the US strikes
Credit: Reuters
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Israeli Iron Dome air defence system intercepts missiles over Tel Aviv
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Khamenei said Iran had delivered a 'slap to America's face' in his address to the nation after the ceasefire
Credit: Reuters
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Trump hit back saying Khamenei 'got beat to hell'
Credit: EPA
"I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life."
Israeli officials had openly hinted that Khamenei was 'not off the table' as a potential target during the air war.
But at the start of the war Trump claimed that while Khamenei was an "easy target", the US was "not going to take him out… at least not for now".
The US president also blasted the Iranian leader's claims that Iran won the war.
He wrote: "Why would the so-called 'Supreme Leader,' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war-torn Country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the War with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie, it is not so.
"As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie."
It comes as Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi - one of Iran's most hardline clerics - issued a religious fatwa calling for the deaths of both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, branding them 'enemies of God'.
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