Some in the Iranian diaspora in the United States gathered in major cities to cheer the news of the U.S. and Israeli attacks that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran who ruled the Islamic Republic with an iron fist for nearly four decades. “Oh, my God, is that happening finally?” asked Peymaneh Khodayari of San Diego. "Because we were waiting for a long time." Her relatives still in Iran were not hiding in shelters, she said, but instead were outside celebrating.