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The dying of a senior Iranian army officer at his house in a Tehran suburb per week in the past has fueled conflicting stories that he fell from a balcony, dedicated suicide or was killed.
The officer, Col. Ali Esmaelzadeh, died a few week after one other high-ranking officer in the identical unit, Col. Sayad Khodayee, was killed in a drive-by capturing in Tehran.
Their deaths come amid a brand new wave of heightened tensions between Iran and Israel, which for years have carried out a clandestine conflict of sabotage and focused killings.
Each officers had been high-ranking members of an elite secret detachment of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Drive, Unit 840, which Israeli officers say is tasked with killing foreigners overseas.
Iran blamed Israel for the killing of Colonel Khodayee, the deputy commander of the unit, and Israel instructed American officers that it was behind the killing, based on an intelligence official briefed on the communications.
However two senior Israeli protection officers stated Friday that Israel didn’t kill Colonel Esmaelzadeh. The officers spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk on the file.
The dying of Colonel Esmaelzadeh was first reported Thursday by the Saudi-financed, London-based Persian tv channel Iran Worldwide. The report, citing nameless sources in Iran, stated that Revolutionary Guards officers suspected Colonel Esmaelzadeh of spying for Israel and staged his suicide.
The New York Instances couldn’t confirm that declare, and Iranian and Israeli officers declined to remark. One official Iranian information outlet stated that report was false.
However Iranian information media have supplied conflicting stories on Colonel Esmaelzadeh’s dying.
Sabreen Information, an outlet affiliated with the Quds Forces, reported Thursday that Colonel Esmaelzadeh died after falling off the balcony of his house in Karaj, Iran, beneath “suspicious circumstances.” The report stated that investigations had been underway.
Iran’s official information company, IRNA, stated that Colonel Esmaelzadeh had died after “an accident” at his residence, and denied that he had been killed.
A information platform on the Telegram app affiliated with the Guards, Ammariyon, initially reported that the colonel had been assassinated, then deleted the report and stated he had dedicated suicide by leaping off the balcony.
The Tasnim information company, additionally affiliated with the Guards, reported Friday that Colonel Esmaelzadeh had fallen off the balcony as a result of it didn’t have acceptable guard rails, and that the coroner’s workplace had confirmed the reason for dying.
There have been different uncommon circumstances surrounding his dying that raised purple flags for some Iranians.
Colonel Esmaelzadeh was a high-ranking officer in an elite unit, however Iranian information media didn’t report the dying for over per week, till the London-based Iran Worldwide did.
The Revolutionary Guards haven’t issued a press release or supplied public condolences to the household, commonplace process for a fallen officer.
The funeral was held beneath a media blackout in a distant village in his native province of Hamedan, based on fliers for the occasion posted on social media — not, as could be customary, at Tehran’s principal cemetery with information protection and officers in attendance.
For 3 days after Colonel Esmaelzadeh’s dying, safety guards swarmed his neighborhood in Karaj, based on an Iranian reporter who was there and requested to not be recognized.
The confusion has led some Iranians, together with conservatives, to query the competing narratives.
“Who had the ability to hold out the killing of Colonel Esmaelzadeh and why?” tweeted Attaollah Husseini, a conservative veteran of the armed forces.
“It’s inconceivable for IRGC members, who’re on the trail of martyrdom all their lives, to commit suicide,” tweeted Abbas Qaidari, a researcher on Iran protection coverage in Toronto. He added that if the Guards had been suspicious of somebody, they’d arrest and interrogate him. “The clues are elsewhere,” he stated.
The deaths of the 2 officers of Unit 840 weren’t the one murky deaths in Iran prior to now two weeks. On Might 25, a drone assault broken a army website exterior Tehran the place Iran develops missile, nuclear and drone expertise, and killed a Protection Ministry engineer.
There was no declare of accountability for the assault, nevertheless it match a sample of earlier Israeli strikes.
Iranian officers have pledged to take revenge on Israel for the killing of Colonel Khodayee final month, prompting Israel to warn its residents from touring to nations within the area the place Iran might have operatives.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of Israel stated in a speech on Sunday that Iran had carried out terrorism via proxies towards Israel for years however that “the period of immunity for the Iranian regime is over.”
Iran’s deputy international minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, shot again on Friday, telling a reporter in Norway, “The Zionists might solely be capable of dream of placing Iran — and if that occurs, it will likely be a dream from which they may by no means get up.”
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