Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s former president, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his residence in Tehran’s Narmak neighborhood on March 1.
Iranian state-affiliated media confirmed the assassination and reported he died alongside his security detail and several companions.
“Ahmadinejad, along with his security guards, was killed following the strikes on his residence in the Narmak neighbourhood in Tehran,” reported the state-affiliated Iranian Labour News Agency.
“As a result of the attacks on Tehran’s Narmak district and the residence of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Expediency Council member was killed along with his bodyguards,” another dispatch noted.
Born Mahmoud Sabbaghian on October 28, 1956, in Tehran, he rose through the Revolutionary Guards and conservative political ranks to become mayor of Tehran and then president in 2005.
His 2009 re-election was marred by mass street protests and allegations of fraud.
During his two terms he repeatedly denied the Holocaust, called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” and accelerated Iran’s nuclear program.
After leaving office his political influence waned as he clashed openly with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and was blocked from presidential bids by the Guardian Council in 2017, 2021, and 2024.
Operation and Wider Strikes
His death came as part of a sweeping, coordinated U.S.-Israeli military operation launched on February 28 that also eliminated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several top military and security officials, including senior commanders in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The strikes hit leadership residences, military headquarters, air-defense systems, and other strategic targets across Iran, with Iranian sources reporting more than 200 deaths as of this report.
In the past 24 hours the conflict escalated into open, multi-front warfare as Israel carried out a second wave of airstrikes largely targeting military installations and IRGC command posts to maintain air superiority.
Iran retaliated immediately and continuously with large barrages of ballistic missiles and drones, and strikes hit Israeli population centers killing at least ten people, including eight in a single attack near Beit Shemesh west of Jerusalem.
Iranian forces also targeted U.S. military installations across the region, with strikes reported in Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
No U.S. casualties have been reported at this time despite continuous strikes, and Iran claimed to have shot down at least one unmanned drone and to have targeted the USS Abraham Lincoln with ballistic missiles.
Iranian state-run media has published footage claiming to show the shoot down of an MQ-9 Reaper with the U.S. Air Force earlier this morning over Southern Iran. pic.twitter.com/UCqrGNjVCp
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 1, 2026
Additional casualties were reported in allied countries, including three deaths and numerous injuries in the UAE from intercepted projectiles.
One fatality was also confirmed in Kuwait while explosions were reported in Dubai, Doha, and Manama on Sunday.
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz was disrupted after an Iranian missile strike on a commercial tanker.
Iranian officials vowed continued “devastating” operations until the United States and Israel are “definitively defeated,” and an interim transitional council has been formed to govern in the absence of the supreme leader.
Military operations remain ongoing as of this report.
Multiple explosions seen and impacts from Iranian drones and ballistic missiles reported at Zayed Port, a commercial deep-water port that serves Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. pic.twitter.com/eSMzT8hjOG
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 1, 2026
