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Israel announced Thursday that its forces killed Alireza Tangsiri, the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy, accusing him of masterminding Iran’s near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
The strike that killed Tangsiri took place overnight in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, according to Israeli officials.
Defence Minister, Israel Katz said Tangsiri was “directly responsible for the terrorist act of bombing and blocking the Strait of Hormuz” and had been “blown up” along with other senior naval commanders in a precision strike.
Behnam Rezaei, head of the IRGC Navy’s intelligence directorate, was also reportedly killed alongside Tangsiri.
The IRGC Navy is a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a paramilitary, political, and economic powerhouse within the Iranian state — and operates separately from the regular Iranian Navy.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the strike in a video statement, describing Tangsiri as a man with “a great deal of blood on his hands” who “led the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.”
Netanyahu called the operation “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.”
Katz described it as a clear message to the IRGC: “The IDF will hunt you down and eliminate you one by one.”
Tangsiri had commanded the IRGC Navy since 2018, having served as its Deputy Commander since 2010.
He was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2019 after Iran shot down a US surveillance drone near the strait.
Iran has imposed a near-total blockade on the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway between Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Oman through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes — as part of its response to the ongoing war that began on February 28.
Shipping traffic through the strait has fallen by about 95 percent, driving up global oil prices.
The Israeli military said Tangsiri oversaw “maritime terrorism” targeting countries in the Middle East and energy infrastructure of the US and other nations.
US Central Command confirmed Tangsiri’s death, with Adm. Brad Cooper stating that it “makes the region safer” and that the IRGC Navy “is on an irreversible decline.”
CentCom called on serving IRGC members to abandon their posts “to avoid further risk of unnecessary injury or death.”
There was no immediate comment from Tehran on the reported killing.
The assassination is the latest in a series of Israeli strikes targeting senior Iranian military and political figures since the war began.
Israel has previously claimed responsibility for killing other top officials, including Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the conflict.
