Abbas-Ali Soleimani, a powerful Iranian cleric, has been assassinated in an armed attack. Abbas-Ali Soleimani was inside a bank when he was assassinated. According to the eyewitnesses, an unidentified person snatched the gun of a guard and shot at Ayatollah Abbas-Ali Soleimani, killing him on the spot.
The killing of Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani stunned both bystanders who witnessed the shooting and the wider public. The cleric had served on the country’s Assembly of Experts that selects and oversees the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader.
It comes after mass protests and a bloody security force crackdown on demonstrators following the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the country’s morality police.
Authorities offered no immediate motive for the attack in Babolsar in Iran’s Mazandaran province, just north of the capital, Tehran. Initially, state television described a man overpowering a guard and shooting the cleric.
But later surveillance footage shared widely by Iranian media showed the shooter inside the bank, openly carrying a firearm and milling around briefly before he walked up to Soleimani and shot him.
As the shot rings out, Soleimani’s white turban falls to the floor as he goes limp. A window behind the cleric shatters. Two men, one of them wearing a green uniform, are seen, staring and apparently stunned. They later grab the man before the footage ends.
