By LEE KEATH and CARA ANNA

When targeted by nationwide protests early this year, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of his nearly four decades in power. But now a U.S. or Israeli military strike may have ended his rule.

There was no immediate Iranian comment about him Saturday after President Donald Trump said Khamenei was killed in a major new attack by U.S. and Israeli forces. Trump also urged Iranians to topple the theocracy.

The 86-year-old Khamenei had tried to avert such strikes as the U.S. built up its military presence in the region to pressure Tehran over its nuclear program. He warned that if the U.S. struck, a regional war would ensue. At the same time, he allowed Iran to enter negotiations with the U.S. over its nuclear program.

Long before the supreme leader’s compound was among the first targets on Saturday, Khamenei was under growing pressure.

The suppression of the protests, with thousands of people killed amid chants of “Death to Khamenei,” was a sign of the threat that popular anger represented. Years of sanctions, economic mismanagement and corruption have gutted Iran’s economy.

Israeli and U.S. bombardment during last summer’s 12-day war had heavily damaged Iran’s nuclear program, missile systems and military capabilities. Iran’s network of regional proxies, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, has been weakened by Israeli and U.S. attacks since the war in Gaza began, along with Tehran’s influence across the Middle East.

Here’s what to know about Khamenei:

Transforming the Islamic Republic

When he rose to power in 1989, Khamenei had to overcome deep doubts about his authority. A low-level cleric at the time, Khamenei lacked the religious credentials of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Revolution.

But Khamenei has ruled three times longer than the late Khomeini and has shaped Iran perhaps even more dramatically.

He entrenched the system of rule by the mullahs, or Shiite Muslim clerics. Under the Islamic Republic, clerics stand atop the hierarchy, drawing the lines to which the civilian government, the military and the intelligence and security establishment must submit.

In the eyes of hard-liners, Khamenei stands as the unquestionable authority — below only that of God.

At the same time, Khamenei built the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard into the dominant player in military and internal politics. It boasts Iran’s most elite military and oversees its ballistic missile program. Khamenei also gave the Guard a free hand to build a network of businesses and dominate the economy.

In return, the Guard became his loyal shock force.

Domestic challenges

The first major threat to Khamenei’s grip was the reform movement that swept into a parliamentary majority and the presidency soon after he became supreme leader. It advocated for giving greater power to elected officials, which Khamenei’s hard-line supporters feared would lead to dismantling the Islamic Republic system.

Khamenei rallied the clerical establishment, and unelected bodies run by mullahs shut down major reforms and barred reform candidates from elections.

Since then, waves of popular protests have been crushed.

Huge nationwide demonstrations erupted in 2009 over allegations of vote-rigging. Under the weight of sanctions, economic protests broke out in 2017 and 2019. More came in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini, who was detained by police for not wearing her mandatory headscarf properly.

Crackdowns against the protesters killed hundreds, and hundreds more were arrested amid reports of detainees tortured to death or raped in prison.

The deadliest crackdown yet

The latest demonstrations touched off in late December in Tehran’s traditional bazaar after the country’s currency, the rial, currency plunged to a record low of 1.42 million to the U.S. dollar. Protests quickly spread across the country.

“Rioters must be put in their place,” Khamenei declared. When hundreds of thousands took to the streets Jan. 8 and 9, security forces fired on crowds, and veterans of past demonstrations said they were stunned by the firepower unleashed.

Activists said they documented more than 7,000 killed and were working to verify more. The government has acknowledged more than 3,000 dead, which is still higher than the toll from past crackdowns.

Nuclear negotiations

By agreeing to nuclear negotiations, Khamenei likely sought to buy time to avert U.S. strikes. But Iran opposed Washington’s main demands that it halt all nuclear enrichment and surrender its uranium stocks.

Trump initially threatened strikes to stop Khamenei and Iran’s other leaders from killing peaceful protesters. He then wielded the threat to push Tehran to engage seriously in nuclear negotiations.

Some in Iran and the large Iranian diaspora expressed hope that the U.S. would use military force to bring down Khamenei. But there were also strong voices even among Khamenei opponents who were against foreign intervention to topple the theocracy.

No successor

Officially a panel of Shiite clerics is tasked with choosing one of their own to succeed Khamenei, and multiple names have been touted among including his son.

Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, told The Associated Press this week that a key lesson Tehran drew from last year’s war was the need to ensure regime continuity in case of Khamenei’s death. He added that power could shift to a small committee of top officials until hostilities subside.

“It is possible that Khamenei has indicated a preferred successor behind closed doors,” Citrinowicz said. “However automatic implementation of a preselected successor will increase internal friction during war.”

But the Revolutionary Guard has grown to become Iran’s most powerful body. If the supreme leader is confirmed to be dead, that could prompt Guard commanders or its regular military to seize power more overtly. And that could set off a bloody conflict over control of the oil-rich country of 85 million people.

Minnesota fought to fight another day in the WCHA playoffs, while the season came to a close for St. Thomas. The fourth-ranked Gophers battled back from a frustrating 1-0 overtime loss to St. Cloud State to defeat the Huskies and force a deciding third game in their opening round series, while the Tommies were swept at No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday.

Gophers 4, St. Cloud State 1

One day after coming up empty despite launching 42 shots on the opposing net, Minnesota cracked SCSU goaltender Emilia Kyrkkö’s code with 49 shots in a 4-1 defeat of the Huskies at Ridder Arena to even their best-of-three series at a game apiece and force a winner-takes-all third game at 3 p.m. Sunday in Minneapolis.

Tereza Plosova put Minnesota (25-10-1) in the lead with the game’s opening goal at 8:15 of the first period. It was a lead that the hosts didn’t relinquish, adding three more tallies off the sticks of Abbey Murphy and Chloe Primerano to take a 3-0 edge into the final frame.

Maria Mikaelyan kept matters interesting by scoring for the Huskies (12-22-2) at 4:50 of the third to bring the visitors to within two goals, but Murphy’s empty-netter with a minute to play clinched the contest for the hosts. Gophers netminder Hannah Clark made 17 saves in the win.

Sunday’s rubber game at Ridder will be broadcast on both Fox 9+, as well as BTN+. Game 3’s winner will advance to the WCHA Final Faceoff on March 5 and 7 at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena on the St. Thomas campus.

Ohio State 4, Tommies 1

Unfortunately for St. Thomas, the Tommies will not be part of the tournament being hosted at their arena as Ohio State ended UST’s season with a 4-1 loss in Columbus, Ohio.

One day after falling 5-1 to the Buckeyes at the OSU Ice Rink, St. Thomas (12-23-1) saw its season come to a close. Maddie Brown scored the Tommies’ final goal of the winter midway through the second period, but her tally barely made a dent in the mighty titan’s armor. UST goaltender Julia Minotti made 27 saves, while her teammates put 20 shots on the Buckeyes (32-4-0).

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By STEVEN SLOAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump, whose fierce denunciation of military adventurism abroad fueled his unlikely rise to the top of the Republican Party, risks becoming ensnared by that very type of conflict.

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The U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran Saturday cemented Trump’s decade-long transformation from a candidate who in 2016 called the Iraq War a “big, fat mistake” to a president warning Americans to prepare for potential casualties overseas and encouraging Iranians to “seize control of your destiny.” The strikes were also at odds with Trump’s warnings during the 2024 campaign that his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, was surrounded by “war hawks” eager to send troops overseas.

Trump justified the action as necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons or developing missiles capable of reaching the US, less than a year after he said airstrikes “obliterated” their capability. US intelligence has also said Iran’s weapons capability was substantially degraded.

For Trump, memories of the false pretenses underlying the Iraq War could lead to pressure to prove his assertion that Iran’s weapons production posed an imminent threat to Americans. And for Republicans already facing a challenging election year weighed down by economic anxiety, the shift could force a reassessment of how the attacks fit into the “America First,” isolationist-leaning movement the party has embraced during the Trump era.

While Trump might benefit from an early rally-around-the-flag effect, that could be hard to sustain for weeks and months, if not longer, a far different scenario from the swift effort to remove Nicolás Maduro from power earlier this year in Venezuela.

Success on day one is one thing. The days after are inherently unpredictable.

“The question is whether Iran’s goal is simply to outlast America and whether Trump has strategic attention deficit disorder, which will allow the Iranians to rise from the ashes and claim victory,” said Michael Rubin, a historian at the American Enterprise Institute who worked as a staff adviser on Iran and Iraq at the Pentagon from 2002 to 2004.

Many Republicans get behind Trump

Many Republicans were quick to line up behind the president, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn and state attorney general Ken Paxton, who are fighting a competitive Senate primary election on Tuesday.

“Hopefully lives will not be lost needlessly, but this always entails risk,” Cornyn said Saturday at a campaign stop near Houston. “But we know that Iran will not stop unless the United States and our allies stop them.”

Others, like Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, praised the military and were critical of Iran while noting that Americans will have questions that “must be answered.”

And there was outright opposition from some who have long criticized overseas entanglements, including Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican of Kentucky, who lamented the start of “another preemptive war.” Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who was once a close Trump ally, rejected the president’s warning of Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

“It’s always a lie and it’s always America Last,” she wrote online. “But it feels like the worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different.”

Little advance preparation for Americans

The administration did little in advance to prepare Americans for such a dramatic action.

Vice President JD Vance told The Washington Post this week there was “no chance” that the U.S. would become involved in a drawn-out war as it did in Iraq. During his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, Trump dedicated just a few lines to Iran, arguing the country and its proxies have “spread nothing but terrorism, death and hate.”

That stands in stark contrast to the lengthy runup to the Iraq War.

President George W. Bush, for example, named Iraq as a member of the so-called axis of evil in January 2002. Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered a now-infamous speech to the United Nations in February 2003, making the case for war based on the inaccurate assertion that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The invasion, which ultimately dominated Bush’s second term, didn’t begin until March 2003.

“We just have to be honest that there is a sense that this was not sold to the American public sufficiently,” Andrew Kolvet said Saturday on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” an online program founded by the late conservative activist who was close to Trump. “Perhaps there will be an opportunity on the backend of this.”

Kolvet was willing, however, to give Trump leeway, noting these are the types of challenging decisions presidents are entrusted with.

“President Trump has earned a big, long leash,” he said. “Not an unlimited one. But a very long one to make tough decisions.”

Polling suggests that many Americans share Trump’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear capabilities, even if they’re less confident in the president’s response. About half of U.S. adults were “extremely” or “very” concerned that Iran’s nuclear program poses a direct threat to the U.S., according to a poll this month from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Most Americans, 61%, said Iran is an “enemy” of the U.S., which is up slightly from a Pearson Institute/AP-NORC poll conducted in September 2023. But their confidence in the president’s judgment when it comes to relationships with adversaries and the use of military force abroad is low, the new poll shows, with only about 3 in 10 Americans saying they have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of trust in Trump.

Democrats sense an opening

Democrats sense a political opening on the issue. In Maine, Gov. Janet Mills and Graham Platner are competing for the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in the fall. They both issued statements on Saturday pressing Collins, the only Republican on the ballot this year in a state won by Harris, to step up her oversight of the administration.

Collins was one of three Senate Republicans who backed an unsuccessful push last month for a war powers resolution that would have limited Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks on Venezuela. Democrats said Saturday they would quickly seek a vote on a similar proposal for Iran.

“If we’ve started a war where we begin to lose American lives, that starts changing the political calculus,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean.

But he noted that Democrats have vulnerabilities of their own, particularly if there’s a domestic terror attack while the Department of Homeland Security is closed as they demand changes to how immigration operations are conducted.

For now, Trump isn’t offering much of a detailed strategy on what comes next. In a social media post Saturday evening, he said bombings could continue “as long as necessary.”

Associated Press writer Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

A couple who arrived in St. Paul from Nicaragua under refugee status in 2023 say their children missed going to school.

Their three students took part in St. Paul Public Schools’ temporary virtual learning program due to fears over federal immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota, which U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials called the largest immigration crackdown in its history. Their oldest child, a son, who worried about his declining academic performance while at home, recently returned to his high school.

He was greeted with hugs and teachers shouting his name, welcoming him back, according to his mother. The couple’s second-oldest child has also returned to school. They say they won’t forget the support the district provided — including connecting the couple with an attorney when the father was detained and sent to Texas as well as the box lunches for their children.

“I feel like they’re my family,” said the mother, who asked to be identified only by the initial M. due to fear of being targeted for detainment, in Spanish through an interpreter. “We don’t have family here; it’s only five of us. We feel very grateful and supported by all of them.”

The woman and her husband are in the U.S. as refugees and in the process of getting green cards.

Cristy Gaffney picks up the son of immigrants to drive him to school in St. Paul on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Gaffney drives him each day as his family fears they will be targeted by federal immigration agents if they leave their home. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

About 7,900 students enrolled in St. Paul’s virtual learning

When St. Paul Public Schools introduced the temporary virtual learning option starting Jan. 22, about 7,900 of the district’s approximately 33,260 students signed up. As of late February, the number has dropped to around 3,700. Federal officials on Feb. 12 announced a drawdown of immigration agents.

Virtual learning, as well as the district’s other responses to the surge — including delivering box lunches for students — have cost approximately $905,000, according to SPPS officials.

Among the costs to the district, around $460,000 is in the form of lost nutrition revenue due to fewer students eating school meals. Technology for virtual learning has cost about $328,000 — from extra iPads and chargers to Wi-Fi hotspots for students. Another $62,000 is for meal delivery and $42,000 has gone to lesson creation costs. Those costs are expected to continue to grow, according to the district.

Initially, as many as half of SPPS students at some schools were enrolled in the temporary virtual option, Superintendent Stacie Stanley said at a school board meeting in February.

Elementary students have the option to opt back into in-person learning every three weeks, with March 6 being the next deadline for students wanting to return the next week. High school and middle school students can request to return to in-person learning at any point.

‘A school-wide effect’

SPPS math teacher Michael Houston said in February that his classes have seemed emptier and quieter since the immigration enforcement began.

He said it reminds him of school before a long break with families traveling out of town. In some of his classes, he estimates around 10% to 15% of his students have been absent. In one of his classes, it’s been around 50% of students, though some of it could be attributed to general absenteeism, he said.

To adjust to temporary virtual learning, some teachers in the district switched to the role of an online teacher, with the students in their in-person classes being split between other teachers. Other adjustments have also been needed for staff concerned about coming to school during the surge.

Students attending school and those learning virtually are both impacted by the change, said Quentin Wathum-Ocama, who teaches kindergarten in the district.

“I think that gets lost a little bit when we talk about these virtual options, that it is really a school-wide effect,” Wathum-Ocama said.

A day of learning virtually

At Groveland Park Elementary School, there’s a morning check-in with students enrolled in virtual learning, said Principal Sarah Lightner, allowing them to stay somewhat connected.

That has included students passing around a tablet so a student at home can talk with classmates and share how their day is going, she said.

“And then they have meetings, there’s literacy groups and math groups with the online teacher during the day for about a half-hour each. And then at the end of the day, they were able to meet with their specialist teacher. So that’s science, P.E., art and music,” Lightner said. “So they might have some specific projects to work on with them, with things at home, but also just maintaining that connection with those teachers that they are used to seeing regularly at Groveland.”

Lightner compares it to a one-room schoolhouse model in some ways because the online teacher is working with kindergarten through fifth grade.

Online teachers meet with students in small groups and in-person teachers help maintain connections in the morning, Lightner said. While students are still able to receive lessons for literacy and math, other classes have not been available to some grades if teachers are not available.

Lightner has had conversations with her staff about their safety coming into work, whether that’s having carpools available or parent patrols in place near where staff park.

“It touched every part of our community and there were certainly — I mean at Groveland, about 50% of our students are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) and every part of that community was touched,” she said.

Arriving from Nicaragua

Meanwhile, the couple from Nicaragua says they are pleased their children have returned to school in St. Paul. But their experience of having the father detained and flown to Texas has left painful memories.

The mother, M., worked as a lawyer in Nicaragua, which often involved her in areas of social and political work, she said. Because she was receiving threats for her work, the family decided to move for their safety.

“It was a very hard decision to leave behind our city, our country, our family. But our life was in danger, simply for having a different opinion from the government,” M. said.

They first moved to Costa Rica, where their two youngest children were born, before they resettled in Minnesota. When they arrived to the state, they saw it as an opportunity to live somewhere safer and with more opportunities, said the father.

“We felt very safe, content, happy. We felt that we connected with the community, with our children’s school, with the people that we had met,” she said. “But everything has changed as a result of ICE.”

A knock at the door

One day in mid-January, as M. prepared to leave for work, the couple heard a knock at the door. It was two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, insisting they open the door.

The couple had never seen ICE agents in person before and the agents showed the couple a photo of the husband they had on a phone.

“So, the officer says, ‘Open the door if you don’t want us to knock down the door,’” said the husband, in Spanish through an interpreter. “The first thing that came to my mind is my girls, like about how traumatic it could be, they see ICE knocking the door down.”

The agents didn’t show a warrant, the couple said, and it was unclear how they knew the husband was there.

The husband was taken to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling. The husband said the only thing he could think at the time was that the agents didn’t care about his documents and were just going to deport him.

A staff person at their son’s school was able to connect M. with an attorney. Also, the day her husband was detained, the family tracked his phone location, which showed him at the airport around 10 p.m.

“We realized what time he left from here, when he went on the plane, when he arrived in El Paso, Texas,” M. said. “And the entire night, because all of this started at 9 in the morning, the whole day, the night, we didn’t sleep.”

Held in Texas

Upon arriving in Texas, M.’s husband and other detainees were taken to a building that was nothing more than a roof and an area enclosed with mesh, he said. Their chains were removed and the weather was very cold. After one day and night in El Paso, the husband and a group of other detainees were put on a bus to Houston.

Eight days after he was detained, the husband was released with several other detainees. His brother, who also lives in the U.S., was able to pick him up before M. purchased him a ticket to fly home. Several days before his release, a law firm hired by M. had filed a writ of habeas corpus, which can be used to determine if an imprisonment is legal.

It’s difficult for the couple to talk about his detainment, they said. And, they still don’t feel safe. A community member brings their son to school and their life is mainly just leaving home for work.

That agents can detain someone without providing documentation and without caring about the harm they cause to that person and their family is very sad, the husband said.

“Because they caused trauma,” M. added. “And the worst part is that it’s unjustified.”

Refugee rights groups sued the federal government in January after the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services launched what they call Operation Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening, or Operation PARRIS, in mid-December, according to the Associated Press.

The program targets refugees in the state who have not yet secured permanent resident status, such as a green card, with the purpose of reexamining their legal status. The lawsuit alleges that under the program, ICE officers went door to door arresting refugees and sending them to Texas detention centers, without access to attorneys. Some, like M.’s husband, were later released and left to figure out how to return to Minnesota on their own.

Alongside that operation has been Operation Metro Surge, which launched in December and, according to the Trump administration, exists to investigate allegations of fraud within Minnesota’s Somali community and “target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in the Minneapolis area.”

Back at school

As students gradually return to school, and some remain online, teachers and administrators said they have mixed feelings.

“Honestly, I’m just looking forward to having that classroom community that I’m so used to having,” said Houston, the math teacher. “Having a classroom full of students and we’re all learning math, laughing, joking, bantering. You know, the reason why I got into teaching. So that’s what I’m looking forward to when all of our students can feel safe enough to come back through our doors.”

Lightner said the experience has been a heavy load for the entire community and an added stress for teachers.

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“I think we want to see the drawdown truly happen and see how that is changing in our families,” she said, “but I think the fear that people have been living with is going to be continuing. And so, ICE might be leaving our community, but the fear is going to be left in our community. And so, how do we create confidence in our security systems and our care for others so that they know that they’re safe to come back to school and safe to be out and about and in the community again?”