Iran's newly appointed Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is reportedly in a coma with at least one leg amputated following a US air strike ordered by President Donald Trump that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on 28 February. The 56-year-old, who took over five days ago, has not appeared in public since, amid claims from a source in Tehran that he also suffered ruptured liver or stomach damage.
New Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was injured during the opening U.S.-Israeli strikes at the beginning of the war, Israeli sources told ABC News.https://t.co/b0bv1cGcpI
— ABC News (@ABC) March 11, 2026
The elder Khamenei died in a devastating blast at his residence during the opening salvos of a joint US-Israel operation targeting Iran's leadership. That strike claimed not just the 86-year-old ayatollah but also Mojtaba's wife Zahra, their eight-year-old son Bagher, his mother and sister, according to reports filtering out despite Tehran's communications blackout.
❗️🏥🇮🇷 - Reports from Tehran indicate that Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's newly appointed Supreme Leader, has reportedly been hospitalized at Sina Hospital in the capital.
— 🔥🗞The Informant (@theinformant_x) March 10, 2026
According to unverified claims circulating on social media and opposition channels, he sustained serious injuries… pic.twitter.com/ATHsnS2tqj
Iranian state media confirmed the patriarch's killing the next day, plunging the regime into mourning even as Trump crowed about it on his Truth Social. Mojtaba's swift elevation came amid chaos, but whispers of his own injuries surfaced almost immediately, with state TV dubbing him the 'Jaanbaz of Ramadan', a slang for a battle-scarred veteran.
Mojtaba Khamenei's Dire Medical Crisis Unfolds
The source in Tehran, dodging the regime's iron-fisted internet clampdown, smuggled details to a London exile, painting a grim picture of Mojtaba Khamenei's state of health.
'One or two of his legs have been cut off. His liver or stomach has also ruptured. He is apparently in a coma as well,' the informant relayed, citing hospital trauma staff, though he admits no medical chops of his own.
Iran's new Supreme Leader is 'in a coma' and has lost a leg after being seriously injured in air strikes, a report has claimed. pic.twitter.com/N5uOUT1OJw
— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) March 12, 2026
Security has turned Sina University Hospital in Tehran's old quarter into a fortress, sealing off wings while Health Minister Mohammad Reza Zafargjani, a top vascular surgeon, oversees care alongside Dr Mohammad Marashi, a regime insider tied to the late president Rafsanjani's family.
President Masoud Pezeshkian popped up there two days back with Zafargjani, fuelling talk he's getting hourly updates on the comatose leader. Iranian officials brush off the silence as a precaution against assassins, but the source insists Mojtaba's oblivious to the war, the family slaughter, even his own coronation as supreme leader.
It's a hell of a way to inherit the throne, especially when the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seems to be calling shots anyway.
Iran's new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not spoken or been seen in public since his appointment over the weekend, was injured in the same U.S. or Israeli strike that killed his father and predecessor on the first day of the war, but he was "safe," officials… pic.twitter.com/waeGvyrlWX
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 11, 2026
Shadows Over Mojtaba Khamenei's Leadership Grip
Sceptics in Jerusalem aren't entirely buying the figurehead line. An Israeli official told The Sun, 'It is absolutely irrefutable that Mojtaba Khamenei has been wounded. But his condition has little bearing on the course of the war, as he is a figurehead installed by the IRGC. They now hold the power and are effectively running Iran.'
Western intel echoes that leg wounds, maybe a fractured foot, bruises, cuts are bad enough to bench him, but he's conscious in some secure bolt-hole, per New York Times sources.
None of this is independently verified. Iran's digital blackout, now in its second week, makes verification a nightmare. State TV's veteran nod confirms wounds, sure, but coma? Amputation? Family unaware? Take it with a lorryload of salt until sat phones or defectors spill more.
Meantime, energy markets jitter as IRGC proxies hammer Gulf airports, from Bahrain to Kuwait, eyeing fuel depots that could spike oil to the moon. Pezeshkian's hospital jaunt hints at power plays behind closed doors, with hardliners whispering that Mojtaba's already a ghost.
The real kicker, if the new ayatollahs are truly out cold, who's minding the theocracy while Trump rattles sabres? Iranian bravado persists, a supposed statement from Mojtaba warning the US dropped today, per Mirror reports, but in a nation sealed tighter than a drum, it smells like regime spin to steady nerves.
Zafargjani's team might stitch limbs, but stitching a fractured leadership? That's bloodier business. Security around Sina thickens by the hour, as if the blasts that maimed the Khamenei dynasty were just the opener.
