Israel says it has killed Iran naval chief overseeing Strait of Hormuz blockade

On March 26, Israeli Defence Forces announced it had successfully completed an operation in Bandar Abbas, killing Iranian naval chief Alireza Tangsiri. According to Israel, Tangsiri was the man responsible for the near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. According to Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, Alireza Tangsiri, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) navy, was ‘directly responsible for the terrorist act of bombing and blocking the Strait of Hormuz', and that he has now been ‘blown up'. Katz added in his statement that a number of other Iranian Navy command officials were also killed in the blast, but Iran has not confirmed the comments.

Blockading the Strait of Hormuz

Blocking the Strait of Hormuz has been Iran's primary strategy to inflict damage on the Western powers attacking it. Nearly a quarter of the world's oil is transported through the Strait. Since Iran's blockade began, oil prices have skyrocketed, with Brent crude trading at more than $100 a barrel, the panic line that experts placed earlier in March. The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway with Iran on one side and Oman on the other. Iran began assembling its blockade on February 28, just hours after Donald Trump's attack. Now, Iran has set up a suffocating blockade, and Americans have begun paying the price for Trump's war at the pump. As of March 22, traffic through the strait had been cut by 95% compared to before the war. An X account attributed to Tangsiri and cited by Iranian media has posted frequently about the Hormuz blockade, writing that “no vessel associated with the aggressors against Iran has the right to pass through”.

Who was Alireza Tangsiri?

Alireza Tangsiri served in the Navy for more than 25 years before his death on March 26. After serving as Deputy Commander from 2010 onward, Tangsiri was promoted to Naval Commander in 2018. He was sanctioned by the US Treasury less than a year after his promotion, along with other IRGC commanders, after Iran shot down a US surveillance drone near the Strait. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Tangsiri as an individual with ‘blood on his hands' and said his assassination was another example of Israel-US cooperation.

US Central Command released a statement after the IDF's statement on X, complimenting Israel on the attack. USCC claimed that Tangsiri's death “makes the region safer” and that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is on an “irreversible decline' without its leaders. USCC also implored  IRGC service members to abandon their posts and return home in order to avoid ‘further risk of unnecessary injury or death'. Israel also announced that the head of the IRGC Navy's intelligence directorate, Behnam Rezaei, was also killed in the same strike that killed Tangsiri.

War on Iran

On February 28, 2026, the US government and Israel undertook a joint operation in Iran, with the US subsequently declaring it was at war with the country. The attacks triggered retaliatory strikes from Iran, targeting US and Israeli military bases across the Middle East. According to Donald Trump, there is no timeline for this war, and the US will continue its operations in the country until it sees a significant regime change, as well as an end to Iran's supposed nuclear program.

US and Israeli strikes killed Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, on Day One of the war, completing Trump's supposed goal. Khamenei has been using deadly violence against civilian protesters in Tehran, and his killing has been the only positive piece of Donald Trump's illegal intervention. Donald Trump changed his reasoning for attacking Iran after Khamenei's death, instead claiming he attacked Iran because he had certain information that Iran was going to attack Israel and the United States. Israel calls the strategy ‘forward defence'.

Now Lebanon and the rest of the Gulf countries have been sucked into the conflict. Iran has struck US infrastructure in nine different nations, and the Lebanese-based, Iranian-funded group Hezbollah has announced it's ready for open war with Israel. With experts expecting Mojtaba Khamenei to continue in his father's footsteps as a hardline, tyrannical leader, Donald Trump's war on Iran is far from over.

Cost of war

As of March 26^th, preliminary figures show harrowing victim counts across the Middle East. In Iran, more than 1,900 people have been killed by US and Israeli strikes. US forces have struck more than 7,000 locations in Iran, and alongside the 1,937 killed, another 24,800 Iranians have been injured, and more than 3 million people have been displaced. A US strike targeting an all-girls elementary school killed 168 children. In Lebanon, more than 1,000 people have been killed by Israeli strikes, with another 3,100 injured and more than 1 million civilians displaced. Thirteen US servicemembers have been killed, and 19 people have been killed in Israel. Since February 28, 168 people have been killed by Iranian strikes across Gulf Countries.

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