U.S. and Israel take out Iran's 'wretched and vile' supreme leader in stunning broad-daylight attack

Former Iran supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The U.S. and Israel launched a joint military attack on Iran early Saturday, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader for the last 37 years, as well as dozens of other key government and military officials. Iran's former President Mahmound Ahmadinejad was also killed in the joint strikes dubbed 'Operation Epic Fury."

Trump also suggested U.S. intelligence operatives traced Khamenei's movements allowing the fatal military strikes to take out the intended targets. "He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do," Trump said in a statement, confirming the supreme leader's death. Khamenei, who was 86, had ruled the country since 1989.

"This wretched and vile man had the blood of hundreds, even thousands, of Americans on his hands, and was responsible for the slaughter of countless thousands of innocent people all across many countries," Trump said in a video update posted on social media late Sunday afternoon. 

The stunning attack came after weeks of nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran went nowhere. All the while, the U.S. had been amassing military forces in the Middle East, its largest show of air power in the region since the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003.

President Trump earlier in the week during his State of the Union address vowed to never allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. Late Friday afternoon, just before leaving the White House for Mar-a-Lago, Trump told reporters he was "not happy" with how negotiations were going and was disappointed Iran refused to compromise on nuclear development. 

"It'd be nice if we could do it without [the military], but sometimes you have to do it with," Trump said. "We have the greatest military anywhere in the world. There's nothing close. I'd love not to use it, but sometimes you have to." About 12 hours later, U.S. and Israeli warplanes began dropping bombs on Tehran, with the first impacts beginning in broad daylight, at around 10 a.m. local time. 

U.S. Central Command announced several casualties on Sunday, saying three U.S. service members were killed in Kuwait due to Iran's retaliatory strikes, and several others were injured. By Monday morning, the U.S. death toll had been increased to four. Centcom also posted several videos showing U.S. forces eliminating several military targets in Iran with missile strikes.

“We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen,” Trump said in his video statement. He also warned more U.S. casualties are "likely."

Trump said the U.S. had decimated Iran's military capabilities. "We have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, some of them relatively large and important. We are going after the rest," he said. The president added that the military action against Iran could last another "four weeks or so." Watch Trump's full remarks below.