Iranian defence chief who issued sinister warning to Trump is killed in airstrike
Iranian defence chief who issued sinister warning to Trump is killed in airstrike
An Iranian official, who recently issued a stark warning to Donald Trump and vowed to ‘eradicate’ the United States, was killed in an airstrike.
Ali Larijani, secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, was targeted by an Israeli strike last night, as confirmed by Iran’s Defence Ministry.
The IDF stated they had struck Larijani, while also noting a separate operation resulted in the death of the Basji paramilitary leader.
“The nation of Iran is not afraid of your empty threats. Even those bigger than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation. Watch yourselves, or you might be eliminated!”
Larijani was involved in the interim leadership council, which guided Iran’s transition following the death of Ali Khamenei.
Also struck in the operation was the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Basij force, a group deployed to quell protests within the Islamic Republic.
General Gholam Reza Soleimani is believed to have perished in a Monday airstrike, though Iran delayed confirming his death.
“The Basij forces are part of the armed apparatus of the Iranian terror regime. During internal protests in Iran, especially as recent demonstrations grew more intense, Basij forces under Soleimani’s command led the main repression operations, employing severe violence, widespread arrests and force against civilian demonstrators.”
The US Treasury lists Soleimani as born in 1965, and he has faced sanctions from the US, European Union and other nations for his role in suppressing dissent through the Basij.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the eldest son of the late Ayatollah, was announced as Soleimani’s successor last week.
However, he narrowly escaped death in a US airstrike and was reportedly flown to Russia for emergency leg surgery.
Despite US reports of his demise, Khamenei recently issued a fierce statement calling for retaliation against the US and its allies.
A Kuwaiti newspaper reported that the new Ayatollah had been secretly removed from a bunker during an airstrike that killed his wife, mother, father and son, then transported to Moscow for a confidential operation.
The covert evacuation saw the wounded leader flown to Moscow aboard a Russian military aircraft.
Khamenei allegedly underwent a ‘successful’ procedure at one of Vladimir Putin’s presidential palaces, with reports suggesting injuries ranging from a fractured foot and minor facial cuts to the loss of a leg or even a coma.
The information, according to Al-Jarida, came from a ‘high-ranking source close to the new Iranian Supreme Leader’.
Iran has since declared the new Ayatollah is alive, countering US claims that he was ‘not’.
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