Top cleric on panel that selects Iran’s supreme leader shot dead in anti-regime heartland

A powerful cleric and member of a panel that selects Iran’s supreme leaders was shot dead on Wednesday in what appeared to be the most high profile assassination since the outbreak of mass protests in the country.

Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani was killed in the city of Babolsar in the northern Mazandaran province and his attacker is said to have been arrested.

“Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani was killed this morning in an armed attack... the assailant was also arrested,” Iranian news agency IRNA reported, citing local officials.

Video footage from the scene of the attack showed Mr Soleimani’s body being taken away on a stretcher, wrapped in a body bag.

Mr Soleimani, 75, was a former representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and was among the 88 members of Iran’s assembly of experts, which selects supreme leaders, AFP news agency reported.

He was also the imam who led weekly prayers in cities in the Isfahan and Sistan-Baluchistan provinces.

Jason Brodsky, policy director of the US-based group United Against Nuclear Iran, noted that Sistan and Baluchestan had seen many anti-regime protests.

Shaken by mass protests

Mr Soleimani appears to be the most senior cleric to have been killed in Iran since the outbreak of massive anti-regime protests in September 2022, which were triggered by the death of a young woman in police custody.

Masha Amini, 22, was beaten to death after she was detained for incorrectly wearing her hijab. Her death caused widespread outrage and triggered nationwide protests that were brutally suppressed by the regime.

It was not immediately clear who carried out Wednesday’s attack, though Iran continues to be shaken by mass protests against the regime and an ongoing crackdown on dissidents.

While Israel is suspected of carrying out high-profile assassinations in recent years in Iran, those targets have mainly been linked to Iranian intelligence and Iran’s nuclear programme, which Israel regards as an existential threat.

It comes after a suspected jihadist attack in the northeastern city of Mashhad killed two clerics and injured another.

And in November, a Shia cleric in the restive Iranian city of Zahedan was also shot dead by unidentified attackers.

In June, Ayatollah Yousef Tabatabai-Nejad, also a senior cleric, was attacked by a young knife-wielding man but survived the encounter.