Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini has been killed in strikes launched by the US and Israel, Iranian state TV reported on Friday.
Naini, also the agency’s deputy of public relations, was assassinated just days after Israeli forces eliminated the clerical regime’s de-facto leader, Ali Larijani, and its anti-protest enforcer Gholamreza Soleimani.
Hours before his death, Naini insisted that Tehran was still able to build missiles despite the US forces’ bombardment from Operation Epic Fury.
“These people expect the war to continue until the enemy is completely exhausted,” he said. “This war must end when the shadow of war is lifted from the country.”
Naini’s remarks were in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming Iran “has no ability to enrich uranium and no ability to produce ballistic missiles.”
“We are continuing to crush these capabilities. We will crush them to dust, to ashes,” Netanyahu said at a press conference on Thursday, according to the Times of Israel.
Earlier this week, Naini dismissed claims that Iran’s navy had been obliterated – warning President Trump that the US could send vessels into the Persian Gulf if he dared.
“The Strait of Hormuz is completely under the management of the IRGC Navy and Iran has complete sovereignty,” he said, according to the Tasnim News Agency.
“Doesn’t Trump say that he destroyed the Iranian Navy? So if he dares, he can send his ships into the Persian Gulf region.”
CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper revealed Monday that more than 100 Iranian naval vessels had been destroyed. He also warned the Tehran regime that US forces “aren’t done.”
CENTCOM also released fresh footage showing forces wiping out Iranian vessels threatening the Strait of Hormuz – a narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.
The Trump Administration has reportedly discussed using ground forces to secure the Strait of Hormuz.
President Trump had been urging allied nations to take a more active role in safeguarding the strait.
The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, called out. Tehran over its “attempts to block the Strait [of Hormuz] to commercial shipping.”
