The new supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, escaped death on February 28 by leaving the attacked building shortly before the airstrike, reports The Daily Telegraph.
The publication cited a recording it obtained of a speech by Mazaher Hosseini, the chief of staff of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the same attack, to the leadership of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, an elite unit of Iran's armed forces).
The Daily Telegraph claims the authenticity of the recording has been confirmed by independent verification. "It was God's will. Mojtaba had to go out to do something and then come back. He was outside and was returning when the rocket hit the building. His wife, Mrs. Zahra Hadad Adel, was killed on the spot," the newspaper quoted Hosseini as saying.
He said Iran's new supreme leader suffered only a "light leg injury" in the strike and that his son was also killed.
