Trump's Operation Epic Fury killed Iran's Supreme Leader, his 40 top commanders, and an entire regime's chain of command.
Now a ghost sits on the throne – and the men keeping him alive have a history of shooting unarmed women in the streets.
Iran just handed its most dangerous kill squad a new mission.
Iran Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei Now Protected by NOPO Elite Force
The unit is called NOPO – Iran's black-clad counterterrorism special force.
Six brigades total.
Four stationed in Tehran, one in Mashhad, one in Isfahan.
NOPO is not part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, though it grew from the same ideological root.
Ali Safavi, a senior official with the National Council of Resistance of Iran, described the force as more lethal, more ruthless, and better trained than the IRGC's regular units — and loyal to one person only.
"Khamenei did not trust any other security force for his protection," Safavi said.
NOPO is equipped accordingly.
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned NOPO in 2021 for committing "serious human rights abuses" against Iranian citizens.
The European Union followed with its own sanctions in 2023, citing the unit's use of excessive lethal force against unarmed protesters – including women and children.
These are the men now responsible for keeping Mojtaba Khamenei alive.
Where Is Mojtaba Khamenei and Who Is Actually Running Iran
Here is what should concern every American watching this war: Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen since Operation Epic Fury began on February 28.
Not once.
Iran's Assembly of Experts elected him Supreme Leader on March 8.
Iranian state television announced the appointment – and in the same broadcast, an anchor described him as wounded, using the Farsi term janbaz, meaning wounded by the enemy in what Tehran is calling the "Ramadan war."
The regime's own broadcaster confirmed its new Supreme Leader may be injured, possibly by the same strikes that killed his father and his wife in the opening hours of the operation.
Trump, for his part, has already made clear he does not believe Mojtaba Khamenei can survive.
Asked directly about the new Supreme Leader by Fox News, Trump said: "I don't believe he can live in peace."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed this week that the operation will not stop until Iran makes an "unconditional surrender" – or until the U.S. determines Iran no longer poses a credible threat.
More than 5,000 enemy targets have been struck.
Iran's ballistic missile attacks are down more than 90% from where they started.
The regime is bleeding out.
Operation Epic Fury Has NOPO Abandoning Its Mission to Guard Prisons
While Mojtaba Khamenei hides, NOPO has fanned out across Iran's prison system.
Hundreds of the unit's forces are deployed around Ghezel Hesar Prison, where political detainees are held under wartime lockdown with food distribution disrupted and courtyard access cut off.
At Evin Prison – Tehran's most infamous detention facility – NOPO took operational control after regular prison staff abandoned their posts as strikes intensified.
Political prisoners who survived January's massacres, when security forces killed thousands of protesters in the streets, are now locked down under NOPO guard with no access to lawyers and no word to their families.
The same unit that fired automatic weapons into crowds of unarmed Iranians during the 2019 protests – killing hundreds – is now the last line of defense between a regime and its own imprisoned population.
The Regime That Murders Its Own People Is Running Out of Time
This is the part the media will not explain to you: NOPO's deployment to prisons is not a security measure.
It is a signal.
When a regime losing a war floods its prisons with its most ruthless internal security force, it is not protecting those prisoners – it is holding them hostage against the population outside.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went on Fox & Friends this week and said it plainly: "This regime is evil."
He added that the conditions are now being created for the Iranian people to reclaim the government they want – that Trump's strikes are building toward the moment the regime can no longer hold.
Every missile battery destroyed, every IRGC commander killed, every brigade degraded brings that moment closer.
Trump told Fox News the operation's results are "way beyond expectation in terms of result this early."
The regime deployed its deadliest unit to babysit political prisoners because it has nothing left to deploy against America.
That is not strength.
That is a government in its final hours – clinging to power with the only tool it has ever known.
Sources:
- Emma Bussey, "Lethal Elite 'Black-Clad' Kill Squad Guards Iran's New Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei," Fox News, March 10, 2026.
- "LIVE UPDATES: Trump Reacts to Iran Picking Mojtaba Khamenei as New Supreme Leader," Fox News Digital, March 10–11, 2026.
- Amy Curtis, "Has Iran's New Ayatollah Already Been Wounded?" Townhall, March 9, 2026.
- "Iran Confirms New Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei 'Is Wounded,'" Breitbart News, March 9, 2026.
- "Prisoners in Iran Face Grave Danger Under Bombardment," National Council of Resistance of Iran, March 2026.
- "Counter-terrorism Special Force," Wikipedia, updated March 2026.
