US President Donald Trump has claimed that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayotallah Ali Khamenei “is dead”.

He made this claim in a post on Truth Social shortly after Israeli officials claimed the Iranian supreme leader had been assassinated.

Iranian media, however, denied the claim.

Trump said Khamenei “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 stated this was “the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country”.

“The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of peace throughout the Middle East and, indeed, the world,” he added.