Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Thursday that the country’s military had eliminated Admiral Alireza Tangsiri of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), identifying him as the top official blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later issued his own statement, apparently confirming Katz’s claim and suggesting that the targeting and elimination of the IRGC terrorist was the product of “cooperation between us and our ally, the United States.”
Tangsiri was the head of the IRGC’s naval units and had repeatedly threatened a full blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime passageway for commercial shipping. Iran’s threats against random commercial vessels in the strait have enabled a dramatic increase in the global price of petroleum products, particularly endangering supplies in east Asia. The governments of South Korea and China, in particular, have loudly objected to any disruption in commercial traffic in the Strait and discouraged actions that interfere with regular economic activity in their countries.
The IRGC admiral is the latest among dozens of senior Iranian military and civilian officials killed since President Donald Trump announced “Operation Epic Fury,” a military engagement to disable Iran’s ability to fund and execute terrorist activity around the world. On the first day of the operation, February 28, Trump announced the elimination of the country’s longtime “supreme leader,” Ali Khamenei, leaving Iran without clear leadership. Iranian officials announced that they had chosen Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as the next supreme leader, but the younger Khamenei has not made any public appearance or live public statements, fueling speculation that he is either severely wounded or otherwise incapacitated.
“The man who was directly responsible for the terrorist operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz to shipping was blown up and eliminated,” Israeli Defense Minister Katz announced on Thursday, describing his death as the result of a “precise” operation that also included actions against other senior IRGC leaders. The IRGC is the most powerful arm of the Iranian military and a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
“The IDF will hunt you down and eliminate you one by one,” Katz warned the Iranian regime leadership. “We will continue to operate in Iran with full force to achieve the objectives of the war.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu separately repeated on Friday that Israeli forces had eliminated Tangsiri, explaining, “this individual has a great deal of blood on his hands, and he was also responsible for leading the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.” He described the strike as “yet another example of the cooperation between us and our ally, the United States, in pursuit of our shared war objectives.”
The Iranian government has not, at press time, confirmed Tangsiri’s elimination. The admiral was a regular official cited in state media for much of the past year, however, particularly on the issue of the Strait of Hormuz. As recently as Wednesday, shortly before Katz announced his purported death, Tangsiri issued belligerent comments announcing that the IRGC had blocked the passage of a container ship and that it would continue to prevent the normal transit of commerce through the maritime byway.
“Any vessel’s passage through this waterway requires full coordination with Iran’s maritime sovereignty,” Tangsiri said on Wednesday, according to Iran’s state-run Mehr News Agency. Tangsiri similarly announced on March 11 that any ship attempting to travel through the Strait of Hormuz must have Iranian permission to do so.
Tangsiri was also the official chosen to announce on March 18 that Iran would be targeting civilian oil facilities “linked to the U.S.” in the Middle East, demanding that “citizens and workers” avoid these locations. The announcement arrived weeks after Iran launched a massive missile and drone campaign in response to “Operation Epic Fury” primarily targeting neighboring Arab Muslim states. Iran has bombed more than a dozen countries since February 28, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Jordan, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. Several strikes have targeted fossil fuel facilities, including Qatar’s most valuable liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, raising global alarm regarding production of these fuels.
The Iranian naval chief had begun threatening ships in the Strait of Hormuz before “Operation Epic Fury” began. On February 17, Tangsiri told state media that the IRGC had imposed “full 24-hour intelligence dominance” in the strait – meaning that Iran was spying on every vessel transiting the body of water.
The Israeli announcement of Tangsiri’s elimination follows a flurry of anonymous reports claiming that Iran has begun attempting to negotiate an end to the war with the United States. Officials from the government of Pakistan claimed this week that they were mediating negotiations between Iran and America and that the United States had prepared a 15-point proposal for ending the conflict. On Wednesday, Iranian state media shared comments from a purported “official with knowledge of the details” who claimed that Tehran was not interested in the peace plan and had, instead, offered its own provisions for peace. Among Iran’s alleged demands were “reparations” from America to Iran and full control over the Strait of Hormuz.
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