ex-president Ahmadinejad killed in airstrikes

Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was killed in an airstrike in Tehran, state news agency ILNA reported Sunday.

According to ILNA, 69-year-old Ahmadinejad was killed along with his bodyguard in his house in the east of Tehran.

During his eight-year term in office from 2005 to 2013, Ahmadinejad was initially a favorite of the ruling Shiite clerics as well as hardliners and conservatives in parliament.

However, towards the end of his term, doubts about his policies increased. Its nuclear policy led to numerous sanctions against the country and thus an economic crisis.

Ahmadinejad has faced international criticism, especially for his anti-Semitic statements. During his presidency, Iran was isolated internationally due to its military threats against Israel and denial of the Holocaust.

His supporters gradually drifted away from him, and although he was initially seen as a favorite of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, even hardliners saw him as a controversial figure by the end of his term.

As president, Ahmadinejad relied heavily on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), giving them control over strategic economic sectors as well as profits from privatization.

But efforts to expand the elected president’s powers at the expense of the country’s religious leadership, particularly through open conflict over the intelligence service ministry in 2011, led to a rift with Khamenei, who was also killed on Saturday.

The Guardian Council, which consists of 12 clerics and lawyers and is appointed by the Supreme Leader, excluded him from the 2017, 2021 and 2024 presidential elections.