Irans new ayatollah may be dead after losing

President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed he was informed Iran’s new supreme chief, Mojtaba Khamenei, is “not alive,” immediately including that if he’s alive, he ought to give up.

“I don’t know if he’s even alive. So far, nobody’s been able to show him,” Trump said during a wide-ranging telephone call with NBC. “I’m hearing he’s not alive, and if he is, he should do something very smart for his country, and that’s surrender.”

His theory about Khamenei, which came during a phone call with NBC News, comes after the newly installed ayatollah did not appear on camera Thursday, as was expected, to give his first statement as the besieged nation’s leader.

Khamenei, the son of slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed in a written statement to continue blocking the critical Strait of Hormuz and attacking U.S. allies in the Middle East.

An unnamed source within the Iranian capital of Tehran reported that Khamenei, 56, allegedly lost at least one leg and sustained severe abdominal or liver injuries during a strike by the U.S. or Israel, according to The Sun.

The source offered a number of details regarding the new leader’s alleged medical status, treatment, whereabouts and protective measures. According to the source, he is being treated at Sina University Hospital in the city’s historic district, where a section has been cordoned off and heavily secured.

The anonymous informant, who said they feared for their safety, bypassed Iran’s widespread internet shutdown to offer the report. Though not a medical professional himself, he claimed to have connections within the hospital’s trauma unit, which described Mojtaba’s condition as “very severe” and claimed he is under the direct care of Mohammad Reza Zafargjani, The Sun reported.

Zafargjani serves as Iran’s Minister of Health, Treatment and Medical Education, and is one of the nation’s leading trauma surgeons.

“One or two of his legs have been cut off,” the source alleged. “His liver or abdomen has also ruptured. He is outwardly in a coma as nicely.”

And though Iranian state television has confirmed Khamenei sustained injuries, the source’s allegations remain unverifiable due in part to Iran’s ongoing internet blackout. The state television referred to Khamenei as “Jaanbaz of Ramadan,” a designation for wounded war veterans.

Trump’s theorizing about the health of Iran’s new Supreme Leader also comes after he said Wednesday that an investigation was underway over reports of a potential surprise drone attack by Iran against California, despite some sources familiar with the matter claiming there is no credible intelligence to support it.

The Trump administration, in a memo sent to agencies affiliated with a federal Joint violent extremism Task Force, said it had acquired information that as of early February, “Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a shock assault utilizing unmanned aerial autos from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States Homeland, particularly against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the US performed strikes against Iran.”

“It’s being investigated,” Trump told reporters near Air Force One on Wednesday in response to a question about the report from a Fox News anchor. “You have a lot of things happening, and all we can do is take them as they come.”

However, a source experienced in counterterrorism and who has knowledge of the memo told The Los Angeles Times that the alert has “not been deemed credible at this time.”

The source, who was not licensed to converse publicly on the matter, said the warning about a doable drone assault was based on intelligence acquired by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Times reported. The source and other law enforcement members told the Times that the warning was cautionary and there was no indication Iran was planning an assault, nor that it might efficiently launch one.

Social media customers had been fast to offer skepticism of the existence of a menace against an American state, questioning the legitimacy of the federal alert and speculating that the menace was a disaster deliberate by Israeli intelligence. The phrase “false flag” was trending on social media, according to International Business Times, a reference to an assault by a group that is made to appear to be another group carried it out.

As the Iran struggle spreads into the Middle East, polls show that many Americans fear Trump’s navy choices have made the U.S. less secure.

About half of voters in a new Quinnipiac Poll and Fox News polls said the U.S. navy motion in Iran makes the U.S. “less safe,” while only about 3 in 10 in each ballot said it made the nation safer, The Associated Press reported.