(Updated with more details) Iran‘s Supreme Leader is dead, Donald Trump has proclaimed in a lengthy social media. However, under bombardment from American and Israeli forces, the Iranian government still insists Ali Khamenei is alive, though no one has seen the much feared cleric in days.

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote this afternoon at 1:37 pm PT.

As the BBC noted soon after Trump posted, there has still been “no independent verification” of Khamenei s death. Iranian State media are saying, as they have been all day, that Khamenei is alive. Satellite images show the top cleric’s residence was destroyed Also, publicly unveiled plans for him to address the Islamic Republic were shelved.

Still, with no solid word of what the state of the murderous Revolutionary Guard and the Iranian military is, Trump had no such caution in his post.

“This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS,” POTUS added.

With rumors of Khamenei’s fate swirling in the hours after the first attacks on Tehran, cable news outlets scrambled to pivot as Trump made his announcement.

On CNN, guests like former Trump National Security Advisor retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, who was recently named as a CBS News contributor, tried to provide instant context of what the immediate fallout could be. In American cities like LA, anti-Khemenei protesters were celebrating on the streets and online within minutes of Trump’s posting. CNN also reported that “celebrations” were taking place in Tehran, which had seen mass protests and mass killings by the regime over the past few months.

Speaking on Israeli TV earlier Saturday, PM Benjamin Netanyahu referred to Khemenei as having “left,” a significant choice of words. At the same time as Trump posted, a UN Security Council meeting continued. Trump said the strikes on Iran, who had fired back at US bases, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and American allies in the Middle East, would go on for several more days.

 Exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who has emerged as a possible ruler of a new Iran, took to social media after Trump.

Calling Khamenei “the bloodthirsty despot of our time,” the 65-year-old son of the last Shah, whose own brutal and bloodthirsty regime was overthrown in 1979 in the Ayatollah Khomeini-led revolution, told officials in Iran to switch sides. “This is your final opportunity to join the nation, to help ensure Iran’s stable transition to a free and prosperous future, and to take part in building that future,” the UK-residing Pahlavi, who has spent most of his life outside Iran, wrote.

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