TEHRAN — Iran officially confirmed on March 30 that an Israeli airstrike had claimed the life of Alireza Tangsiri, the veteran commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces, whom Israel accused of orchestrating the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Guards’ Sepah News website reported that Tangsiri “succumbed to severe injuries” sustained in the attack last week while he was overseeing coastal defenses. The statement vowed relentless retaliation, declaring, “We will not rest until the enemy is completely destroyed.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who assumed the role after his father Ali Khamenei’s assassination in US-Israeli strikes on February 28 and has remained out of public view since, issued condolences via Telegram. He praised Tangsiri as “a soldier of Iran and guardian of Islam” amid the escalating war, now in its second month. Tangsiri’s funeral is scheduled for March 31 in the strategic port city of Bandar Abbas.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the strike on March 29, labeling Tangsiri the “man directly responsible for the terrorist operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz.” Katz noted that other senior naval officers perished in the raid but provided no further names.
The commander’s death marks another blow to Iran’s leadership. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei fell on the war’s first day, February 28, followed by security chief Ali Larijani and over a dozen other high-profile figures earlier this month.
A survivor of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, Tangsiri had led the Guards’ navy since his 2018 appointment by Ali Khamenei. Under his command, the force expanded aggressively, seizing foreign vessels and vowing in March to “deliver the harshest blows” while enforcing the Hormuz blockade, a move that has sent global energy prices soaring.
The U.S. sanctioned Tangsiri in 2019 over counter-terrorism concerns. While Israel and the U.S. tout these assassinations as crippling Iran’s war machine, analysts note the regime’s resilience, with signs of rapid recovery and sustained operations.