After an extensive search lasting over 15 hours, the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was found on a fog-shrouded mountainside in northwest Iran. Official announcements confirmed that he was killed in the crash along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Tabriz Friday Prayer Leader Ayatollah Al-Hashem, East Azerbaijan Governor Malek Rahmati, and two of their companions.
Iran blamed the crash and the sluggish search for the wreckage on the foggy weather and a malfunction that forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing.
However, some speculate the crash was not an accident but a planned assassination by Israel, given its track record of targeting Iranian leaders in recent years. They also accuse the Azerbaijani government of colluding in the assassination, given its history of allowing Israel to use its territory to target Iran.
In April, Israel targeted the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing several senior Revolutionary Guard officers, including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who oversaw Iran's alliances with militias in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine.