Source: New Iranian supreme leader had fractured foot and face lacerations on first day of war

Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, suffered a fractured foot and other minor injuries on the first day of the US and Israel’s bombardment campaign, a source familiar with the situation told CNN.

In addition to his injured foot, Khamenei, 56, received a bruise around his left eye, as well as minor lacerations to his face, the source said.

An Israeli source previously told CNN that Khamenei was injured in an assassination attempt last week, and rumors of his injuries have swirled for days.

Iran’s ambassador to Cyprus, Alireza Salarian, told the Guardian newspaper on Wednesday that Khamenei was injured in the same airstrike that killed his father, the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with five other members of the family.

Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public nor heard from in the days since the announcement of his appointment to the country’s highest office, a fact explained by his injuries, Salarian said.

“I don’t think he is comfortable (in any condition) to give a speech,” Salarian told the Guardian.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s son Yousef said early Wednesday that he had heard Khamenei was injured, telling the state-affiliated Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) that the new supreme leader is “safe and there are no concerns.”

Iranian state media and propaganda networks have made extensive use of the little archival footage that exists of Mojtaba Khamenei in the meantime, filling in any gaps of footage with AI-generated images.

When Iran’s Assembly of Experts announced that he had been chosen to replace his father, state media released a four-minute documentary clip recounting his life: modest origins, seminary studies in the holy city of Qom, his time fighting in the Iran-Iraq war as a teenager and, finally, his new role as heir to his “martyred” father.

While Mojtaba Khamenei kept a low profile before becoming the most powerful person in Iran, he was nonetheless a central figure in the vast network of influence his that father, Ali Khamenei, cultivated during his decades-long tenure as supreme leader. In 2021, photos were even published on social media showing Iranians passing out posters promoting Mojtaba Khamenei as an heir to his father.

The new supreme leader, while not a high-ranking cleric, is a close associate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC) and the regime’s economic elite. Observers believe he is just as, if not more, hard-line as his father was.

Before Mojtaba Khamenei’s confirmation as supreme leader, Maha Yahya, director of the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center, told CNN that his new role could be seen as a message from the regime to the United States and Israel that military pressure is “not going to get us to shift position.”

The younger Khamenei was even a focus of protesters’ rage during demonstrations against the outcome of the 2009 Iranian elections, in which the conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected to a second term.

Many in the country believe Khamenei had a hand in the widely disputed final results. Before the uprising was crushed and Iran’s domestic opposition obliterated, protesters chanted in Farsi, “Mojtaba bemiri Rahbari ro Nabini,” or “Mojtaba may you die so you don’t assume the leadership role.”

Though a little-known figure outside Iran until he replaced his father, Khamenei had previously received scrutiny from US officials. In 2019, the US Treasury sanctioned Khamenei for allegedly working closely with the IRGC “to advance his father’s destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives.”

US President Donald Trump, for his part, has expressed disapproval of Iran’s new supreme leader, calling him an “unacceptable” choice.

CNN’s Oren Liebermann and Sana Noor Haq contributed to this report.