Olushola Omogbehin
Iran’s former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was killed on Sunday along with senior figures in the country’s leadership in strikes carried out by the US and Israel.
As reported by Israeli outlet Ma’ariv quoted by NY Post, the former president was under house arrest at the time and was killed in a targeted strike on his residence. Israeli War room also quoted Iranian media, to report the death.
“Former president of Iran’s Islamist Terror Regime, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was eliminated, per Iranian media. Ahmadinejad was sanctioned by the US in 2023 for involvement in the wrongful detention of Americans,” it said.
During his eight-year term in office from 2005 to 2013, Ahmadinejad was initially the favourite of the ruling Shiite clergy as well as hardliners and conservatives in parliament.
Towards the end of his term however, doubts about his policies grew. His nuclear policy led to numerous sanctions against the country and, consequently, to an economic crisis.
He came under international criticism, primarily for his anti-Semitic remarks. During his presidency, Iran was internationally isolated because of its military threats against Israel and its denial of the Holocaust.
DPA International reports that during this process, his supporters increasingly turned away from him, and even hardliners found him a controversial figure by the end of his term in office, even though he was initially seen as a favourite of Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.
As president Ahmadinejad relied heavily on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), granting them control over strategic economic sectors along with profits from privatization.
But his attempts to increase the powers of the elected presidency at the expense of the country’s clerical leadership – in particular through open conflict over the intelligence service ministry in 2011 – led to a breach with Khamenei, who was himself killed on Saturday.
The Guardian Council, made up of 12 clerics and lawyers and appointed by the supreme leader, shut him out of presidential elections in 2017, 2021 and 2024.
Other leaders killed include: Nasirzadeh served as Iran’s minister of defence in Pezeshkian’s government, which came to power after the 2024 elections, Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of Iran’s Defence Council and a close adviser to Supreme Leader Khamenei, Abdolrahim Mousavi who served as the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces among others.
