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BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — The Malian army said Saturday that several northern towns, including Gao and Sévaré, were targeted by rebels. The statement came as a rebel group announced a new offensive to capture a northern town.

Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesperson for ​the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), said in a Facebook post that the town of Anefis was being targeted by the separatists.

Mohamed Cissé, a resident of Gao, told The Associated Press that the army is going door to door searching for attackers who are still in the city.

“For the moment, the calm has returned. But I learned that the attackers are still in a part of the city, so I stay inside the house with the family,” said Ousmane Maiga, another resident.

In a later statement, the Malian army claimed that “the situation is completely under control.” It added that in Sévaré, “20 terrorists on motorcycles and equipped vehicles were neutralized.”

But Rawani Ahmed Bouya, a member of the FLA and head of the National Office of the Azawad diaspora, told the AP that Anefis was under FLA control and that the fighting was almost over. His claim could not independently verified.

In late April, a coordinated attack by the FLA and the regional al-Qaida affiliate JNIM killed the defense minister in his home and took control of several key towns in the north of the country.

Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, deputy project director for the International Crisis Group think tank, said that while the latest attacks are “nothing comparable” to those in April, reports of attacks across the border in Burkina Faso as well as across Mali could indicate an attempt to divert the attention of the army to secure more limited gains in northern Mali.

Wassim Nasr, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, said the targeting of Anefis was strategic because any Malian attempt to reverse the territorial gains from April would have been staged in Anefis.

Mali has previously faced insurgencies by militants affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, as well as a separatist rebellion in the country’s north. The separatists have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali.

Along with Mali, neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso have also been battling al-Qaida and IS affiliates.

Following military coups, the juntas in the three countries turned from Western allies to Russia for help combating Islamic militants. But the security situation has worsened with a record number of militant attacks. Government forces have also been accused of killing civilians they suspect of collaborating with militants.

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Wilson McMakin reported from Dakar, Senegal

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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovaks will cast the ballot on Saturday in a referendum to decide whether to cancel lifelong payments for populist Prime Minister Robert Fico and other leaders after their terms in office expire.

They will also vote on whether to reopen the office of the special prosecutor and the National Criminal Agency, which both dealt with major crime and corruption.

The referendum follows a petition organized by the Democrats, a non-parliamentary pro-Western opposition party, and was signed by more than 350,000 citizens in the nation of 5.4 million, the threshold required by law.

Only one referendum in Slovakia’s history — the 2003 vote on the country’s European Union membership — was successful. Others failed due to low turnout.

Polls suggested Saturday’s turnout would not reach the required 50%.

Slovak prime ministers and parliament speakers who served at least two terms in office are entitled to receive a lifelong payment — a monthly sum that equals the salaries of lawmakers in Parliament — as part of measures to boost security for leading politicians.

The payments were introduced following a 2024 assassination attempt on Fico, who was shot and gravely wounded after a government meeting, shocking the small country and reverberating across Europe. The benefit was provided only to former presidents before 2024.

Earlier in 2024, Slovak lawmakers approved a plan by Fico’s coalition government to abolish the special prosecutors’ office, which handles serious crimes such as graft, organized crime and extremism and the government also dismantled the police unit dealing with such crimes.

The legislation faced sharp criticism at home and abroad, and thousands of Slovaks repeatedly took to the streets to protest the law. A number of people linked to Fico’s party faced prosecution in corruption scandals.

Fico has been a divisive figure since returning to power in 2023. His pro-Russian and other policies prompted numerous protests.

Fico said he would not vote in this referendum.

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LAMPEDUSA, Sicily (AP) — Pope Leo XIV, who has sparred with the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, spent the Fourth of July on Saturday in the epicenter of Europe’s migration debate to honor the tens of thousands of people who have died trying to reach Europe to find freedom and prosperity.

While the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with rallies, parties and fireworks, history’s first U.S.-born pope traveled to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to pray at a migrant cemetery and celebrate a solemn Mass for the island’s residents and newest arrivals.

A treeless strip of rock 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) long, Lampedusa is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland and is the main port of entry into Europe for hundreds of thousands of migrants who crossed by boat from Libya or Tunisia, often smuggled by human traffickers.

Leo met with some migrants at the port and then walked alone onto the jagged jetty rocks, the wind whipping his cassock and blowing his zucchetto skullcap off as he looked out to the sea. He then blessed a plaque dedicating the dock to Pope Francis, who visited in 2013, before celebrating Mass on land.

“This is a place where gestures speak louder than words,” Leo said. “But for gestures to be human, they need a heart.”

In making the visit on this particular Saturday, Leo was sending a powerfully symbolic message to the United States and Europe of the Christian obligation to uphold the dignity of every human being, migrants and the most vulnerable especially, while reminding the United States that it was founded by immigrants.

In a letter sent to Americans on the July 4 anniversary, Leo insisted that protecting the unborn and all human life also means “welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants, whose hopes, sacrifices and contribution have formed part of the history of this country from its very beginning.”

“To receive them with compassion and generosity is not only an act of charity, but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human person,” Leo wrote.

In recent years, Lampedusa has become Ground Zero of Europe’s migration debate as the continent struggles to police its borders while honoring its legal obligations to welcome refugees fleeing conflict, climate change and poverty.

In his homily, Leo thanked the residents of Lampedusa for the “miracle of compassion” they have shown in welcoming migrants and urged Europe to rise to the challenge of the moment and assume its responsibility.

“Indeed, before any intellectual consideration or ideological conviction, the encounter with those who lie before us, stripped of everything, calls us to be close to them,” Leo said, wearing vestments decorated with images of waves.

Preaching from “this far-flung corner of Europe on the Mediterranean Sea,” Leo urged European leaders to address the migration phenomenon in a comprehensive way, integrating immediate relief with a long-term strategies to receive, protect, support and integrate migrants while developing their home countries so no one is forced to migrate.

“Here you have seen not just one, but thousands of human beings fallen into the hands of robbers who have taken everything from them, beat them brutally and walked away, leaving them half-dead,” he said.

Others have died making the voyage, he said, “yet we feel their presence, which challenges us no less than that of those who have landed in need of attention and aid.”

The number of migrants arriving in Italy so far this year is significantly lower than in recent years, with the Interior Ministry reporting 14,464 arrivals as of Friday compared with 30,598 in the same period last year and 26,202 in 2024.

At the same time, the International Organization of Migration has recorded more than 35,000 missing migrants in the Mediterranean since 2014, though the actual number of dead is believed to be far higher given the untold number of “invisible” shipwrecks that are never recorded.

Leo has strongly emphasized the need to uphold the dignity of migrants, especially amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation program in his native Chicago. But he has also directed his message to Europe’s Christian leaders.

Last month, Leo visited another European migration hot spot, in Spain’s Canary Islands, to shame leaders who turn migrants away indifferently while also warning people smugglers they will face God’s wrath for exploiting the desperation of migrants.

After arriving in Lampedusa by plane, Leo paid homage to the dead at the island’s migrant cemetery, laying a wreath of yellow and white flowers on their graves, marked by simple crosses made from the splintered wood of shipwrecked boats.

The gestures send a “strong message” of solidarity, said Tareke Brhane, a migrant from Eritrea and president of the October 3rd Committee, a nonprofit founded by relatives of victims of a 2013 shipwreck in Lampedusa that left 368 people dead.

“It is a strong sign for our battle with Italy and with Europe in order to register the deaths, because as of today we still do not have a registry (of those deceased),” he told The Associated Press.

Leo’s visit both honors the dead and “gives a message to the relatives, so many of them still waiting and suffering,” he said.

With his visit, Leo followed in the footsteps of Francis, who made the plight of migrants and refugees a priority of his pontificate. For the Catholic Church, welcoming and accompanying people fleeing hardship is part of the Gospel-mandated call to “welcome the stranger.”

Francis traveled to Lampedusa in July 2013, on his first trip outside Rome after his election. He tossed a wreath into the sea in memory of migrants who had died and denounced the “globalization of indifference” that the world shows migrants.

Salvatore Sortino, the IOM’s head of mission for Italy and Malta, said despite the decrease in arrivals, the number of dead had increased proportionally, “in the sense that the diminishing numbers of arrivals hasn’t resulted in a lower number of deaths at sea.”

“That speaks about the vulnerability that remains,” he said. “So the visit of the pope here, where all this happens, I think is a very important reminder of that element.”

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Winfield reported from Rome.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — When World Cup season descends upon soccer-mad Brazil, green and yellow banners decorate restaurants, bars and apartment buildings, streets are painted with flags and soccer balls, and discussions of the beloved national team’s games are ubiquitous.

But this year, another topic has taken center stage: the prevalence of ads for bets on the games, even as the country grapples with a surge in gambling which leaves some with crippling debt and has led to the number of people seeking care for addiction more than doubling in the past five years, according to Brazil’s health ministry.

Since the FIFA World Cup began, the percentage of Brazilians placing bets has more than tripled, rising from 11% in May before the tournament kicked off to around 35% at the end of June, said Brazilian fintech company Klavi in a study based on a sample of 1.2 million people.

Advertisements extending beyond traditional commercial breaks to include live presenter endorsements and real-time odds promotions have sparked a fresh wave of indignation, with politicians across the political spectrum calling for tighter controls.

When sports betting was made legal in 2018, rampant advertising and sponsorship coupled with an unregulated market resulted in a turmoil that prompted the government to usher in new regulations in 2023. Earlier this week Brazil’s Finance Minister Dario Durigan said the government would announce new measures to increase regulation.

In a statement to The Associated Press on Thursday, Brazil’s Finance Ministry said it had asked two media outlets and four betting operators to provide explanations regarding content that may have breached laws. Authorities also ordered the immediate suspension of any advertisements found to be in violation of the current regulations, the ministry added.

Brazil has become the third-biggest market in the world for sports betting, following the U.S. and the U.K., a report by data analysis company Comscore said in 2023.

Betting and gambling are estimated to cost Brazilian society 38.8 billion reais ($7 billion) annually and increase suicide and depression, according to a 2025 study by the non-profit Institute of Studies for Health Policies.

“We are witnessing a humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Brazil,” said Sen. Eduardo Girão during a public hearing on the problem at the Senate on Thursday. The issue has prompted musicians such as Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso to participate in a campaign demanding stricter laws.

Michael Marcos, a 22-year-old transport inspector from Brazil’s northeastern state of Alagoas, is among those who suffered from anxiety due to betting last year. He decided to take a six-month break, before picking the habit up again during the World Cup.

“Watching Brazil play is already an emotional experience. But if I bet 1000 reais ($200) on them, the emotion will be even greater because there’s an accompanying tension to do with whether I’m going to win or lose money,” he said.

To limit the impact on his mental health, Marcos is only betting on teams — such as France — he thinks are very likely to win. So far, he says his strategy has worked out for him. Nonetheless, he plans on stopping at the end of the tournament.

CazéTV, a streaming platform on YouTube and the only channel with rights to all 104 games in Brazil, has faced particular scrutiny.

The platform has featured traditional adverts for bets, but CazéTV’s commentators have also promoted betting during the games, blending advertising with commentary of the action on the pitch.

“Betting is intended for people aged 18 and over. But when it is embedded in content (…) anyone can be exposed to it, including children, teenagers, and other vulnerable groups. The exposure becomes indiscriminate,” said Carolina Terra, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo’s communications and arts school.

Brazil’s National Consumer Secretariat, a branch of the Justice Ministry, opened an investigation into possible irregularities during CazéTV’s broadcasts of the World Cup on June 24.

Shortly afterwards, the country’s advertising self-regulator opened three proceedings regarding betting offers read aloud by presenters and commentators. It then recommended suspending the ads.

In a statement, CazéTV said that it would adopt a more specific and conservative approach to betting brand integrations and follow a more traditional advertising format, adding that its advertising complies with Brazilian legislation.

Gustavo Freitas, a 34-year-old who works in advertising, said he has bet around $200 since the World Cup began, a ten-fold increase from what he normally bets during a month.

Freitas said he doesn’t see it as a form of income, but as a pastime.

“No one believes they’re going to become rich playing videogames on weekends. It’s the same for betting,” he said. “The problem is thinking that you’re going to find the perfect formula and forgetting the old saying (…): the bank always wins.”

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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BRASILIA, July 3 (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has ruled that former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro can remain under house arrest due to health concerns, a court decision showed on Friday.

Bolsonaro, 71, has been serving a 27-year prison sentence since November for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The defense successfully sought to keep the former president under house arrest, arguing that Bolsonaro would receive better medical care at home given his health problems. The former president, who was stabbed on the campaign trail in 2018, has faced major health issues in recent years.

“At this time, the continuation of humanitarian house arrest appears reasonable, appropriate and proportionate,” Moraes said in the decision, noting Bolsonaro has shown health improvement serving the sentence at home.

In March, Moraes granted the former president permission to serve 90 days under house arrest on medical grounds after he was hospitalized with an acute form of pneumonia. 

The new ruling is a relief for Bolsonaro and follows an incident in which a firearm owned by the former president was seized from a member of his security detail during a police checkpoint last month.

Earlier this week, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet, in an opinion requested by Moraes, recommended keeping the former president under house arrest despite the firearm incident.

Moraes agreed, saying there was no proof of “serious misconduct” by Bolsonaro during the initial house-arrest period.

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Writing by Isabel Teles and Andre Romani; Editing by Brendan O’Boyle)

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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his rival Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro clashed over U.S. tariffs this week, as both sought to discourage the Trump administration from following through with its proposal of applying taxes of 25% on Brazilian products despite an extensive U.S. trade surplus.

The two top candidates for October’s presidential election traded barbs over their responses, suggesting that they believe how they are perceived as handling the deeply unpopular U.S. tariffs will be a key factor in the vote.

While Sen. Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, emphasized that the tariffs would strengthen Lula, Brazil’s government rebuked the argument that its trade policies are unreasonable, discriminatory or burdensome to U.S. commerce.

The Trump administration first imposed a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports last July, citing a “witch hunt” against Jair Bolsonaro, who was on trial at the time for attempting a coup despite his 2022 electoral defeat to Lula and was later convicted.

In his letter, U.S. President Donald Trump also accused Brazil of unfair trade practices and said he had directed U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to initiate an investigation, which led the office to charge Brazil with lax anti-corruption enforcement and unfair tariffs, among other things, in June. The U.S. has had a goods trade surplus with Brazil for years.

After relations between the two countries appeared to warm following meetings between Lula and Trump last year, the U.S. proposal to impose tariffs in June led to a renewed souring of relations, with Lula warning the U.S. leader against meddling in the country’s elections.

The move prompted Lula to again defend Brazil’s sovereignty, a discourse that last year struck a chord and gave Lula an unexpected boost of popularity.

Flávio Bolsonaro himself pointed to the impact on public opinion in the document he sent to the office of United States Trade Representative (USTR) on Wednesday.

“Brazilian public polling shows that the incumbent government’s electoral position has strengthened during precisely the periods when U.S. tariff pressure has been most salient,” he wrote in the document, which included graphs of the polls, adding that the proposed tariffs would hand the government a “political victory.”

Bolsonaro also said the findings of the USTR investigation can be “reaffirmed in full even as implementation is suspended,” suggesting that tariffs be postponed.

Lula called the document “yet another act of treason against the fatherland.”

Jair Bolsonaro’s other son Eduardo, who lives in Texas, was convicted this year for illegally lobbying the U.S. government to threaten Brazilian officials to stop his father’s trial.

“It is unacceptable that the Bolsonaro family, with its sellout policies, seeks to submit Brazil to the interests of the United States,” Lula said Thursday on X. “There has never been, nor is there, any justification for a tariff hike now or later.”

Three hours later, Flávio Bolsonaro said on X that Lula is the only “one who wants the tariff hike against Brazilian products” and announced he is returning to the U.S. next week to reinforce the demand that the additional tariffs not be applied.

In response to the USTR’s investigation, Lula’s government rejected, among other grievances, the argument that its PIX instant payment system unfairly disadvantaged competing electronic payment services. It said its practices are lawful, neutral and promote competition.

Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro have also clashed over the Trump administration’s decision to classify two of Brazil’s main organized crime groups — First Command of the Capital, known as PCC, and Red Command — as terrorist organizations.

Sen. Bolsonaro supported the move, which some experts saw as a U.S. attempt to interfere in the election. Lula has argued the designation is inappropriate because the groups seek profit rather than political change.

Earlier this week, the U.S. announced sanctions targeting companies and individuals for their links to PCC and called it “the largest transnational criminal organization in the Western Hemisphere.”

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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MEXICO CITY, July 3 (Reuters) – Mexican authorities said on Friday that remains found at a site in the eastern state of Veracruz belonged to journalist Roxana Guzman, whose killing has again shined a harsh light on press freedom in Mexico, one of the world’s deadliest countries for journalists.

Guzman, director of crime news outlet Pulso Informativo del Sureste, was abducted from her home on June 2 after armed, masked men broke down the front door, with video of the incident widely shared on social media.

Local media reported that after killing Guzman, the attackers tried to dissolve her body in fuel-filled drums. Authorities later recovered skeletal remains at the property.

“Forensic tests concluded the identification process and scientifically confirmed that the remains recovered during the investigation belonged to the journalist,” the Veracruz state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Authorities said eight people had been arrested over Guzman’s kidnapping and killing, including four municipal police officers from Ixhuatlan del Sureste, a small town about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Veracruz city.

Prosecutors said the officers allegedly provided resources, food and logistical support to the criminal group involved.

Two other journalists have been killed this year in connection with their work, according to rights group Article 19. The organization says 10 journalists have been killed since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office in October 2024, underscoring Mexico’s reputation as one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the press.

(Reporting by Diego Oré, Writing by Fabiola Arámburo; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

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July 3 (Reuters) – The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo has increased to 1,502, including 473 deaths, government data showed on Friday.

The cases were recorded in the eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu.

(Writing by Ayen Deng BiorEditing by Bill Berkrot)

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By Parisa Hafezi and Jana Choukeir

DUBAI, July 3 – The body of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was lying in state in a vast hall in Tehran on Friday as clerics, officials, foreign dignitaries and other mourners paid their respects after his 37-year rule. 

Iran is staging a week of mass funeral processions for Khamenei — killed in February by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes at the start of a four-month war — in a show of public devotion to the Islamic Republic’s theocratic state and revolutionary fire. 

Khamenei’s body was expected to be taken to Qom, Najaf and Kerbala, the great Shi’ite centres of Iran and Iraq, before being laid to rest on Thursday in Mashhad, home to the country’s holiest pilgrim shrine.

CRITICAL MOMENT FOR ISLAMIC REPUBLIC

His coffin was unveiled late on Thursday to a throng of sobbing supporters, swaying and beating their heads in time to a sung lament as flowers were thrown from the bier into the crowd. On Friday the coffin — and those of family members killed with him — was laid in state in the great prayer hall built to honour his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. 

The funeral comes at a critical moment for Iran, where the clerical rulers backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are riding high from surviving what they saw as an existential war against their greatest and most powerful foes. 

But nearly five decades after the 1979 revolution, and for all the official proclamations of national unity in the run-up to Khamenei’s funeral, the Islamic Republic has rarely been so internally fractured. 

Support for the clerical leadership is paper thin, analysts say, and the new Supreme Leader, Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been seen in any new image since being wounded in the strike that killed his father.

Years of crippling sanctions have paralysed the economy as accelerating bouts of mass nationwide protests have been put down by security forces with increasing force — culminating in the killing of thousands of demonstrators in January.

Those deep problems have been brushed aside this week, with the authorities mounting a display of state power and mass support, mobilising what they hope will be millions of mourners to take part in the funeral. 

Tehran streets were tightly controlled, with military and police vehicles lining the major roads and police and members of the black-shirted volunteer Basij paramilitary force patrolling on motorbikes. Iran warned the United States and Israel against any attacks during the funeral. 

After the coffins arrived on Friday, borne high across the upraised hands of a waiting crowd, they were laid in the prayer hall on a white, stepped, dais before a high, intricately tiled, arched recess, flanked by national and black mourning flags. 

A black turban, worn by clerics claiming descent from Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, lay on the coffin on a folded chequered scarf, a symbol in Iran of militant revolutionary ideals and solidarity with Palestinians. 

Representatives from Russia and China were expected to attend. Top Iraqi, Armenian and Pakistani politicians arrived in Tehran for the funeral. 

Families of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and senior commander Imad Mughniyeh, close Lebanese allies of Iran killed in Israeli strikes, attended the ceremony. 

Iran’s own political leaders — the president, parliament speaker, foreign minister and others — filed in to weep and pray on Friday morning.

SOBBING CROWDS, FUNERAL TOUR OF IRAN AND IRAQ

In Iran’s theocratic system, Khamenei was not only head of state and leader of a revolutionary movement, but the representative on earth ‌for Shi’ite Islam’s ⁠12th imam, who disappeared in the ninth century.

His death in an enemy attack plays into a powerful Shi’ite tradition of martyrdom and mourning, in which processions of flagellants beat their chests or backs.

That potent symbolism has been evident in the black funeral flags hanging over city streets since his death referencing the seventh-century martyrdom of Shi’ism’s third imam, Hossein.

In central Tehran overnight, a crowd stood sobbing and chanting, led by a Basij member, as others handed out posters of the late Khamenei. 

“God willing, only by avenging his blood, demanding justice for it, and ensuring that our leader’s blood is not left unavenged, can this sorrow of the people be somewhat alleviated,” said Mobina Razaaghi, an 18-year-old student from Isfahan, attending the funeral events with classmates. 

Killed alongside Khamenei, and displayed in coffins next to his, were his daughter, son-in-law and baby granddaughter, as well as the wife ​of his son Mojtaba.

BURIAL POSTPONED DUE TO WAR

Burials are meant to be conducted within a day of death in Islam, but because of the risks of holding a big funeral during the war it was postponed until after last month’s interim truce deal was agreed. 

Hotels are offering 50% discounts, schools, mosques and sports halls have been prepared to house mourners, and bus and rail networks are being diverted to serve the main events.

After what authorities are billing as a massive procession in central Tehran on Monday, the remains will be taken to the seminary city of Qom, the centre of Iran’s Shi’ite hierarchy, for ceremonies on Tuesday.

Ceremonies will then be held in Iraq’s ⁠shrine cities of ​Najaf and Kerbala on Wednesday with prominent attendees from Iran’s regional network of Shi’ite proxies.

He will be buried on Thursday, after another ​procession, in Mashhad near the tomb of the Imam Reza, a figure of great devotion in Iran.

(By Parisa Hafezi and Angus McDowall; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dramatically remolded Iran during more than three decades as supreme leader, turning it into a regional powerhouse and bringing it increasingly into confrontation with Israel and the United States.

His dayslong funeral begins Saturday, months after being killed at the start of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran.

Khamenei took the reins after the death in 1989 of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the fiery ideologue who led the overthrow of the shah and installed rule by Shiite Muslim clerics. It fell to Khamenei, a stodgier figure with weaker religious credentials, to turn that revolutionary vision into a state establishment.

He supported myriad armed groups in the Middle East, pushed ahead with Iran’s nuclear program, and faced down several protest movements with crackdowns. While his clashes with the U.S. and Israel were a source of support at home, they ultimately led to his demise.

After the 1980s war with Iraq, Khamenei turned the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard into the most important body underpinning his rule. The Guard became a military and business behemoth, the country’s most elite force, with hands across Iran’s economic sectors.

Under Khamenei’s reign, Iran also shifted fully from conventional warfare to support for proxies, building the “Axis of Resistance.”

That included backing the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which drove Israel from southern Lebanon in 2000 and has battled Israeli forces repeatedly since.

Iran has also supported Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who in 2014 seized the country’s capital and held on for over a decade in a stalemated war, and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has fought Israel in the Gaza Strip. Iranian-backed militias also waged an insurgency against U.S. forces in Iraq.

The Mideast wars sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, however, set in motion the collapse of that “Axis of Resistance,” and left Hamas and Hezbollah weaker.

For decades, Khamenei shrugged off U.N. sanctions and pushed ahead with Iran’s nuclear program, which the U.S. and its allies say hid a secret project to build a nuclear weapon up until 2003.

Khamenei issued a verbal fatwa, or religious ruling, that nuclear weapons are un-Islamic, but vowed the country would never give up its right to develop what he called a peaceful nuclear energy program.

Under a 2015 nuclear deal, Iran agreed to drastically reduce its stockpile and enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. But since U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the accord in 2018, a move welcomed by Israel, Iran has accumulated a stockpile of uranium enriched to nearly weapons-grade levels. Israel and some U.S. officials have expressed concern that Tehran could us that to pursue nuclear arms if it chose.

Both the U.S.-Israeli bombing in 2025 and the current war have targeted Iran’s nuclear program.

Political repression and Iran’s faltering economy have fueled successively bigger waves of protests.

In 2009, protests broke out when the reformist opposition claimed the reelection victory of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged. Dozens were killed and hundreds arrested in a crackdown.

Economic protests broke out in 2017 and demonstrations escalated in 2019 over a rise in government-set gasoline prices. A crackdown killed over 300 people, according to activists.

Protests erupted again in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained for not wearing her headscarf properly. More than 500 people were killed and tens of thousands arrested when security forces crushed the demonstrations.

In late 2025, economic protests erupted and grew into what appeared to be the biggest protest movement ever. Hundreds of thousands across the country took to the streets, demanding an end to the Islamic Republic. The ferocity of the crackdown — activists say at least 7,000 have been killed — stunned Iranians.

Khamenei’s death raises questions about the future of the Islamic Republic. Khamenei’s son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, was chosen as the next supreme leader. But he was believed to have been wounded in the strikes that killed his father and has not been seen publicly.

As Trump launched the current war, he called on Iranians to “take over your government. ” There has been no sign yet of any such uprising, however, as hard-liners have rallied nightly in the streets of Tehran.

What happens after the burial of the elder Khamenei may depend greatly on bodies like the Revolutionary Guard, which has repeatedly shown its willingness to use overwhelming force to maintain power.

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