Hard-line former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (archive photo)
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hardline figure known for his confrontational rhetoric and role in Tehran’s nuclear challenge, was reportedly killed during Israeli airstrikes inside Iran on Saturday.
According to media reports such as the Israeli newspaper Maariv cited by the New York Post, Ahmadinejad was under house arrest at the time and was killed in a raid targeting his home.The Israeli War Room also reported news of the death from Iranian media. “The former head of Iran’s Islamic terror regime, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been eliminated, according to Iranian media.She added that the United States imposed sanctions on Dinejad in 2023 for his involvement in the illegal detention of Americans.
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Ahmadinejad, Iran’s sixth president from 2005 to 2013, rose quickly from his previous position as mayor of Tehran to upset establishment figure Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the 2005 runoff. At home and abroad, he was often viewed as a confrontational hardliner, whose economic decisions contributed to rising inflation, and whose provocative rhetoric increased Iran’s isolation on the international stage.He has become particularly notorious in the West for his statements about Israel and the Holocaust. At a 2005 conference titled “A World Without Zionism,” he cited Iran’s founding leader, the now-deceased Ayatollah Khomeini, describing Israel as “the occupying regime of Jerusalem” and a “disgraceful cancerous growth” that “must be wiped off the map.” Supporters later argued that the translation of his comments was disputed, but critics insisted that the meaning was unambiguously hostile.Ahmadinejad came to global attention again in 2007 during a visit to Columbia University in New York, where he said: “There are no gays in Iran,” a remark that sparked widespread laughter and derision.