Iranian media reported Sunday afternoon that former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — once considered one of Israel’s most bitter adversaries — was also killed in the Israeli and U.S. strikes. According to the reports, Ahmadinejad “was killed along with his bodyguards in a missile attack by the Zionist regime and the United States.”
Ahmadinejad served as Iran’s president for eight years, from 2005 to 2013, and during that time became the public face of Iran’s nuclear program and Tehran’s defiance of the West. He frequently threatened Israel’s destruction and made openly antisemitic remarks, gaining notoriety as a brazen Holocaust denier. He also drew widespread ridicule in the West for a series of controversial statements, including during a visit to New York for the UN General Assembly when he told an audience at Columbia University that there were no homosexuals in Iran.
When Ahmadinejad was re-elected in 2009 for a second term, the Iranian regime was accused of rigging the vote in his favor. Mass protests erupted across the country demanding the overthrow of the ayatollahs’ rule, in what became known as the Green Movement. The uprising was met with a violent crackdown by regime forces, leaving dozens dead and hundreds imprisoned.
Ahmadinejad left office in 2013 as a president whom Iran’s ruling elite increasingly viewed as more damaging than beneficial to the country’s international standing. Nevertheless, he retained considerable popularity among lower-income Iranians, largely due to housing and development programs he promoted. After leaving office, he became active on social media and sent a series of widely publicized letters to world leaders. He also publicly criticized government corruption, even though his own administration faced similar allegations and two of his deputies were sent to prison.
In recent years, Ahmadinejad attempted to run again for president, but amid reports of tensions between him and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — who was also killed on Saturday — the Guardian Council disqualified his candidacy three times, in 2017, 2021 and 2024. In the years following his presidency, Ahmadinejad notably expressed support for limiting Khamenei’s powers and, in a rare 2018 statement, wrote to the supreme leader calling for “free” elections.