Iran: Former aid to Ali Khamenei 'assassinated' in a bank
A former representative of Iran's supreme leader was shot dead in northern Iran on Wednesday, state media reported.
Abbas Ali Soleimani, Ali Khamenei's former representative in Sistan and Baluchestan province and a member of the Assembly of Experts, was killed while in a bank in the northern city of Babolsar, in Mazandaran province.
The governor of Mazandaran, Mahmoud Hosseinipour, said the attacker had been a member of the bank's security personnel.
"So far, our information and documents indicate that this was not a security or terrorist act," Hosseinipour told state television.
The IRNA news agency quoted a political and security official as saying the suspect was in custody and being investigated. He added that the motive for the attack remained unclear.
Apart from being a member of the 88-strong Assembly of Experts - mandated with supervising, dismissing and electing the supreme leader, Soleimani had led the weekly Friday prayers in the cities of Kashan, in central Isfahan province, and Zahedan in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.
His death is the most significant attack on a cleric since April 2022, when a knife attack by a suspected militant in the northeastern shrine city of Mashhad led to the deaths of two clerics and the injury of another.
Iran has been gripped by unrest since September, with anti-government protests following the death in custody of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini who had been arrested for "inappropriate hijab".
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