The US has confirmed it has eliminated an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander who was behind a 2024 plot to assassinate President Trump.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday that the US had "hunted down and killed" the man, whom he said was the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unit tasked with murdering Trump prior to his election for a second term in office.
According to Israeli journalist Amit Segal, this was Rahman Mokadam, with Segal adding that it was Israel that eliminated him.
In a criminal complaint filed in 2024 against Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan national, in relation to the alleged plot, federal prosecutors claimed that an unnamed IRGC commander had directed him to develop a plan to surveil and assassinate the US leader. Shakeri is currently believed to be resident in Iran.
Hegseth said: "Iran tried to kill President Trump. President Trump got the last laugh.”
The announcement comes after the Pentagon claimed it had eliminated the entirety of Iran’s senior leadership, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Also among the dead are Major General Abdol Rahim Mousavi, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces and formerly commander-in-chief of the Iranian Army, IRGC leader Mohammad Pakpour, Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to Khamenei, Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, and Mohammad Shirazi, who served as the head of the military office.
Meanwhile, Admiral Brad Cooper, head of the US Central Command (Centcom), the command responsible for operations in the Middle East, confirmed on Tuesday that Iran’s air defences had been “severely degraded”.
He also claimed that 17 Iranian warships had been destroyed and that there were now no regime ships operational in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping lane which the regime has effectively closed with threats of attacks on commercial vessels.
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