Israel has claimed to have killed Alireza Tangsiri, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy of Iran who was overseeing the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said, “directly responsible for the terrorist act of bombing and blocking the Strait of Hormuz”, and has been “blown up”.
In a statement posted on social network platform X, Israel’s military said that the head of the IRGC Navy’s intelligence directorate, Behnam Rezaei, was also “eliminated” though Iran has not commented yet.
Israel has assassinated several top Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and security chief Ali Larijani since US-Israel’s the start of the war with Iran on 28 February.
Iran effectively blockaded the Strait of Hormuz which has been a key strength of Iran’s strategy in the war bringing down daily traffic about 95%.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman through which around 20% of the world’s oil and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) normally passes.
Oil prices have consequently been hiked causing sufferings to the consumers in not only the US and Israel but across the world.
An X account attributed to Tangsiri and quoted by Iranian media has posted over the Hormuz blockade that “no vessel associated with the aggressors against Iran has the right to pass through”.
Tangsiri was appointed as the commander of the Navy in 2018 who had previously served as deputy commander since 2010.
US Treasury sanctioned him along with other IRGC commanders in 2019 after Iran had shot down a US surveillance drone near the Strait of Hormuz.
According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Tangsiri had “a great deal of blood on his hands” and his killing was “yet another example of the co-operation between us and our friend, the United States, toward the common goal of achieving the objectives of the war.”
In a statement, US Central Command declared that the IRGC’s navy “is on an irreversible decline” and that Tangsiri’s death “makes the region safer”. Additionally, it urged IRGC members in service to leave their positions and go home “to avoid further risk of unnecessary injury or death.”
