WASHINGTON — The U.S. military announced March 4 that it had eliminated an Iranian official leading a unit implicated in an alleged assassination plot against President Donald Trump, though the target was not the primary aim of ongoing operations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared at a briefing: “The leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed. Iran tried to kill President Trump and President Trump got the last laugh.”
He clarified to reporters that the strike, executed March 3, was not the operation’s main focus—”never raised by the President or anybody else”—but he and others made sure those responsible ended up on the target list.
Hegseth did not disclose the official’s identity. The move comes after the U.S. Justice Department in 2024 indicted an Iranian national tied to a plot orchestrated by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps against Trump, then president-elect. Tehran has rejected all claims of targeting Trump or other American figures.