Never-Before-Seen Elite Unit Activates Around Ayatollah Khamenei

As Israel and the United States intensify military strikes against Iran’s senior leadership, new reports indicate that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has gone into hiding and is now being protected by a previously unknown unit of bodyguards.

According to The Telegraph, the elite unit was kept so secret that even senior officials within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were unaware of its existence. The unprecedented security measure highlights the regime’s growing fears of infiltration and assassination amid a rapidly escalating conflict.

“But his life is in danger, and there is a unit responsible for his protection that no one even knew existed to avoid any chance of infiltration,” an unnamed Iranian official told The Telegraph.

While former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled Damascus during critical phases of his country’s civil war, Khamenei is reportedly refusing to leave Iran.

“He is in Iran and is not going anywhere. He won’t flee like the coward Assad,” the official said.

The supreme leader’s precise location remains unclear, though The Telegraph reported he may be living under or near the IRGC’s media operations center in Tehran. According to The New York Times, Khamenei now communicates with Iranian commanders through an aide and has reportedly ceased using electronic devices to prevent tracking or interception.

From this concealed location, Khamenei is said to have taken preemptive action in the event of further assassinations, designating replacements for top military officials. Multiple senior IRGC commanders have already been killed since Israel began striking Iranian targets following its June 13 escalation. The Times also reported that Khamenei has named three leading Islamic clerics as potential successors, a move seen as highly uncharacteristic and indicative of instability at the top of Iran’s power structure.

Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser to Iranian parliamentary speaker Gen. Mohammad Ghalibaf, confirmed the extent of the damage to Iran’s leadership in an audio analysis. “It is clear that we had a massive security and intelligence breach; there is no denying this,” Mohammadi said. “Our senior commanders were all assassinated within one hour.”

Western officials say these developments signal a regime under immense strain. A source quoted by the New York Post claimed Khamenei’s naming of successors showed clear panic. “If you need any more evidence that the ayatollah is shaking in his boots, look no further than him identifying his three stooges,” the anonymous official stated.

A former national security official from the Trump administration added, “Like the new head of the Iranian military whom the Israelis killed last week only days after he was promoted, these guys are not long for this world. Their new godly command should be to book a one-way ticket out of the country ASAP.”

On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that Saeed Izadi, commander of the Palestine Corps in the IRGC’s Quds Force, was killed in an airstrike. The IDF described Izadi as “one of the architects” of the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel and said he was among the few senior operatives aware of the attack before it occurred.

Iran has yet to publicly acknowledge the full extent of its leadership losses or provide transparency about the Supreme Leader’s status. However, the deployment of a hidden security force, combined with dramatic leadership shakeups and retaliatory rhetoric, paints a portrait of a regime bracing for further blows.

As tensions rise, the implications of Iran’s internal chaos may reach far beyond the region, as Israel and the United States continue to pressure the regime through a combination of intelligence operations and military strikes.