ICYMI: Over in Iran, a very important person was shot in a bank. Not “the” Ayatollah but “an” Ayatollah. Apparently, they come in six-packs. The one in particular who got assassinated was Abbas Ali Soleimani, who “had served on the country’s Assembly of Experts that selects and oversees the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader.”
Shot in a bank
A ranking Shiite cleric was shot and killed on April 26, Iran reported. When the white turban of Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani got blasted to the floor, followed by the limp body of the Ayatollah, bystanders were “stunned.”
His assassin was “armed guard at a bank in northern Iran.” Nobody noticed as he “calmly walked up behind a senior Shiite cleric,” then blasted him in the head.
Surveillance footage clearly shows the moment the cleric was shot and killed, making him the “most-senior clergyman slain during months of unrest that has shaken the Islamic Republic.”
#Iran: The assassination of Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani, a aember of Assembly of Experts for Leadership & significant Inam in Babolsar, #Mazandaran.
The killer, who was a security guard, shot him with a Tondar/MP5A3 subgun; ideal for this application. pic.twitter.com/vaoW4xJPC7
— Cᴀʟɪʙʀᴇ Oʙsᴄᴜʀᴀ (@CalibreObscura) April 26, 2023
Not only did the brutally sudden murder of Soleimani shock customers of the bank, it rattled “the wider public.”
Reports noted that “The cleric had served on the country’s Assembly of Experts that selects and oversees the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader” but officials aren’t speculating on any potential motive.
They’re sticking with hard facts like the attack happened in “Babolsar in Iran’s Mazandaran province, just north of the capital, Tehran.” At first, state media misreported that a man “overpowered” a guard and shot the Ayatollah. Then, they learned it was the guard himself who did it. At least, someone dressed like a guard.
A special investigation
A special murder like the high profile assassination deserves a special investigation. Iran insists that’s what will come next.
After they got caught with their pants down covering up the truth, state media was quick to circulate the video showing “the shooter inside the bank, openly carrying a firearm and milling around briefly before he walked up to Soleimani and shot him.” He blended right in and would have looked out of place if he wasn’t packing a gun. That was genius.
The Interior Ministry quickly announced it “would launch a special investigation into the slaying.”
Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, sent a message of condolence following the assassination of Hujjat al-Islam Abbas Ali Soleimani.https://t.co/RgcUpyfslC pic.twitter.com/1SwODKYV4T
— Khamenei Media (@Khamenei_m) April 27, 2023
The unnamed assassin was arrested and expected to be tortured without mercy until he screams out every tiny detail of how he cooked up the plot, why and who helped him. Nobody was sure how old the clerk was when he was shot but estimates put him around 77.
The media was full of his accomplishments all day. Soleimani, they reported, “served on the Assembly of Experts, an 88-seat panel overseeing the post of Iran’s supreme leader. He also once served as the personal representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Iran’s restive southeastern provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan.”
He was probably shot because the political situation there is more unstable than Martin Sheen on a bender. The way newscasters put it, “Discontent has increased in recent years, however, particularly amid waves of nationwide protests over economic, political, and civil rights issues in Iran.“
