Iran’s brutal anti-protest enforcer is dead, Israel says — as Tehran launches fresh crackdown on dissent

 

Iran’s brutal anti-protest enforcer is dead, Israel says — as Tehran launches fresh crackdown on dissent

Israel has claimed to have killed Iran’s security chief responsible for suppressing protests in its latest airstrikes, as the regime launched a fresh crackdown on dissent in the Islamic Republic.

Israel’s military announced on Tuesday it had killed Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that is responsible for suppressing protests in the country.

Soleimani, believed to be 61 or 62, was killed in an airstrike on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said.

It said he had acted as the Basij commander for six years, overseeing the Iranian regime’s suppression of dissent and mass arrests of protesters.

Iran has not confirmed the death of Soleimani, who would be one of the most senior Iranian officials to have been killed since Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the early days of the war.

Security forces in Iran have arrested suspected collaborators with foreign governments, while threatening would-be protesters with death to try to quell an uprising.

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