In the shadow of mounting military pressure and fears of assassination, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has reportedly moved to a secure underground bunker and suspended all electronic communications,

Ali Khamenei was born in Mashhad, Iran, in 1939, as the second son of a local religious leader, Javad Khamenei, and he grew up in relative poverty. He learned to read the Qur'an in early childhood before attending a theological seminary school in Mashhad.