Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani, a member of the Assembly of Experts for Leadership of Iran, assassinated
Soleimani was Khamenei's former representative in Kashan and notably Sistan-Baluchistan, the scene of many protests.
Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani, a member of the Assembly of Experts for Leadership of Iran, was assassinated on Wednesday morning, according to Iranian media reports.
IRNA news agency reported, citing an official that the attack took place in the city of Babolsar in the northern province of Mazandaran.
“Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani was killed this morning in an armed attack… the assailant was also arrested,” IRNA reported.
Soleimani, 75, was previously the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He was a powerful Iranian cleric who led the weekly Friday prayers in the cities of Kashan, in central Isfahan province, and Zahedan in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.
The development comes after a series of attacks targeting clerics.
As reported, this case is reminiscent of the knife attack on Ayatollah Yousef Tabatabai-Nejad, Khamenei’s representative in Esfahan Province, last year. But he survived.
