Trump says Iran’s new supreme leader ‘damaged’ but likely alive

US President Donald Trump said he believes Iran’s new supreme leader is “damaged” but “probably alive in some form,” following a message from Mojtaba Khamenei broadcast on Iranian state television, reports BBC.

Citing an unnamed Iranian official, Reuters reported that Khamenei was “lightly injured” in joint US-Israeli strikes, though no further details were provided.

In an interview with Fox News scheduled to air Monday, Trump reacted to Khamenei’s statement urging Iran to continue leveraging the Strait of Hormuz. The strategic waterway has seen attacks on oil tankers, causing prices to hover around $100 a barrel.

“They’ve been doing a lot of talking, so he’s going to have to put up. We’ll have to see because we are decimating them,” Trump said. “We are hitting them harder than anyone has been hit since World War Two.”