Iran Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei Was Pulled From Rubble of Bombed Tehran Hospital After US Strikes: Report
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was pulled from the rubble of a bombed Tehran hospital following early-war strikes, Assembly of Experts member Mohsen Heydari revealed to Al Araby. Heydari detailed how Khamenei was secretly elected with 50 votes, while conflicting accounts continue between US assessments of severe injury and Tehran's claims of full health.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was pulled from the rubble of a Tehran hospital after strikes hit the medical facility where he was receiving emergency treatment, an Iranian cleric revealed in a televised interview. Mohsen Heydari, a senior member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, disclosed the account during an interview with Qatari television network Al Araby, offering fresh details regarding the secretive sequence of events following the opening strikes of the war on February 28.
The initial February 28 strikes targeted the Tehran compound of his father, 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killing the longtime supreme leader alongside dozens of senior military and political officials. The younger Khamenei, 56, was wounded during the assault and transferred to medical facilities across the capital before disappearing from public view, having neither appeared in public nor delivered a broadcast address since. Mojtaba Khamenei Meets Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian to Discuss Economy, Defence: Iranian Media.
Mojtaba Khamenei Was Pulled From Rubble of Bombed Tehran Hospital
According to Heydari, the medical centers treating the wounded leadership were targeted in the days following the initial compound strike. “Even after he had been wounded and taken to the hospital, three hospitals in Tehran were bombed,” Heydari said in his remarks to Al Araby. “Mojtaba Khamenei was in the third hospital and was pulled from the rubble.”
Following his extraction from the debris, the 56-year-old leader was transferred to an undisclosed, secure location. The disclosure provides the first official acknowledgement from an Iranian leadership body that hospital facilities housing wounded state officials were struck during the offensive. Iran Releases Video of Mojtaba Khamenei Amid Reports of Supreme Leader’s Critical Health Condition.
Heydari also outlined the clandestine succession process that culminated in Mojtaba Khamenei's selection as supreme leader on March 8. The cleric revealed that the younger Khamenei was unaware he had been tapped for the position until the official announcement was broadcast across Iranian state television. Once the decision was finalized, he was legally and religiously obligated to accept the mandate, Heydari noted.
The 88-member Assembly of Experts, tasked with appointing the supreme leader, was itself targeted when a strike on its Qom Secretariat killed eight individuals and destroyed key documentation and recommendations. To conclude the selection, assembly members submitted written ballots before being summoned to an unannounced location under strict secrecy.
Heydari recalled proposing Khamenei’s nomination in direct defiance of warnings from US President Donald Trump: “Given the enemy’s position, we will choose and elect no one as leader and supreme guide of the Islamic Republic except Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.”
Khamenei secured 50 of the 59 votes cast, while eight members voted for Ayatollah Alireza Arafi and one member abstained. Heydari characterized him as a “man of the shadows,” noting that while he had never held an official political post in the state apparatus, he possessed the requisite religious qualifications, justice, and competence to lead.
Questions regarding Khamenei's health and physical condition have persisted due to his extended absence from the public domain. US intelligence assessments have suggested that he was severely disfigured during the aerial bombardments.
Commenting on Khamenei's condition last month, President Donald Trump stated: “I don’t think he’s dead. He was very seriously wounded. The left side of his body, the arm, the leg, the whole thing. He was very seriously wounded, but I don’t think he’s dead.”
Conversely, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian dismissed reports of debilitating injuries during an interview on Fox News while attending the UN General Assembly in New York. Pezeshkian asserted that the supreme leader was “completely” healthy, adding: “We met for about seven hours. We conducted talks.”
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 27, 2026 12:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
