PARIS: The US-Israeli air strikes that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb 28 resulted in the death of several key family members as well, according to his son Mojtaba.

In a message read out on his behalf on state TV on Thursday, Mojtaba Khamenei alluded to the family losses, saying besides his father, he had also lost “my dear and loyal wife”, a sister, her child and a brother-in-law.

Mojtaba Khamenei’s message gave no indication of his own physical condition, but the Pentagon said on Friday he was “wounded” and “likely disfigured”.

Mojtaba Khamanei said in his message he had seen the late Ayatollah Khamenei’s body after his martyrdom.

Mojtaba Khamenei described the body as “a mountain of steadfastness” with the fist of his father’s one functioning hand - his other arm was paralysed after a bomb attack in the 1980s clenched in a sign of defiance.

Others who died

Zahra Haddad-Adel was the wife of Mojtaba and the daughter of prominent conservative figure Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, a former parliament speaker who also confirmed her death in televised comments.

Such marriages between prominent religiously conservative families are common among the Iranian political establishment.

Mojtaba Khamenei said his “self-sacrificing sister” was killed, as well as her child, and the husband of “my other sister”.

He did not specify the names. As well as three brothers, Mojtaba had two sisters, Hoda and Boshra. Boshra married the son of Khamanei’s long-standing gatekeeper and chief of staff, Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani.

Hoda married Mesbah Bagheri Kani, the son of prominent cleric Mohammad Bagher Bagheri. There are also unconfirmed reports that several of Ali Khamenei’s grandchildren were killed.

Believed to have survived

Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh was the wife of Ali Khamenei, but despite her husband’s exalted position a figure of the lowest of profile in Iran.

She was almost never photographed and rarely appeared in public, far removed from any notion of a first lady.

Some media reports from inside Iran said she had been killed in the air strikes. But Mojtaba Khamenei did not mention her as being among the dead and on Thursday the Fars news agency said she had survived.

“The wife of the martyred supreme leader is alive, and the initial reports of her martyrdom were incorrect,” it said.

The message from Mojtaba Khamenei aired on Thursday with no video or audio content did nothing to dispel speculation over his condition, after state television and some officials confirmed he had been injured.

The extent of his injuries remains subject to conjecture and it is also unclear whether it is the severity of his wounds rather than security issues that are preventing him from appearing in public.

“We know the new so-called, not-so-supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured,” US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth told a press conference on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2026