Iran confirms Israel killed Revolutionary Guards naval commander Alireza Tangsiri, who was responsible for the Strait of Hormuz blockade
TEHRAN: Iran confirmed on Monday that an Israeli strike killed the commander of the naval force of the Revolutionary Guards.
A statement on the Guards’ Sepah News website said Alireza Tangsiri “succumbed to severe injuries” from the attack last week.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced the airstrike on Thursday.
He described Tangsiri as the “man who was directly responsible for the terrorist operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz”.
Iran has imposed a de facto blockade on the key waterway since the war began over a month ago.
This action has sent global energy prices spiralling.
The Guards’ statement said Tangsiri was organising coastal defences when he was killed.
It vowed “that we will not rest until the enemy is completely destroyed”.
He is the latest top Iranian official confirmed killed in the conflict.
Supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed on the war’s first day on February 28.
Powerful security chief Ali Larijani was killed earlier this month alongside over a dozen other prominent figures.
Katz said senior officers of the naval command were also killed in the strike.
Tangsiri had vowed in March to “deliver the harshest blows to the aggressor enemy while maintaining the strategy of closing the Strait of Hormuz”.
A veteran of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, he was one of the force’s longest-serving senior figures.
He was appointed by Khamenei in 2018 to head the Guards’ naval branch.
Under his leadership, the Guards’ navy was significantly strengthened.
It has claimed responsibility for seizing numerous foreign vessels in recent years.
Tangsiri was sanctioned by the United States in 2019 in a counter-terrorism related designation.
Israel and the US say they have dealt a major blow to Iran by killing top officials.
Some analysts say the Islamic republic is still showing resilience and capacity to recover from setbacks.
The Sun Malaysia
