Where is Ayatollah Khamenei? Mystery deepens as Iran faces deadliest military crisis

Jason Brodsky of United Against Nuclear Iran told AFP that Khamenei has long prided himself on “deterring conflict away from Iran's borders since he assumed the supreme leadership in 1989.” But now, for the first time, the conflict has come crashing in. Brodsky compared the current moment to the early 1980s, when the Islamic Republic was rocked by assassinations and bombings that killed top leaders and injured Khamenei himself. “But what we are witnessing today is on a completely different level of magnitude,” he noted.