Iran President Ebrahim Raisi dies in chopper crash: Report
Image Credit X Iran MFA
Iran President Ebrahimi Raisi is dead
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, May 20: Reuters has quoted an Iranian official saying that Iran President Ebrahim Raisi along with his foreign minister died in the helicopter crash in the northwestern parts of the country. The whereabouts of Iran President Ebrahim Raisi had not been known even after 12-hour of the news breaking of the crash-landing of his chopper in the forested areas in the northwestern parts of the Islamic nation. Iran has mobilised Army for rescue efforts.
Iran’s Vice President Mohsen Mansouri on social media platform X confirmed that President Raisi died in the helicopter crash. Reports said that the rescuers found burned body parts. They were beyond identification, reports added while quoting the Iranian news agencies.
Osintdefeder, which claim to be an open-source intelligence network while keeping an eye on conflicts, share a footage of the site on X, formerly Twitter. It said that there is no sign of life at the site.
DD Geopolitics in a post on X said that the Iranian Red Crescent “has not detected any signs of life at the crash site”. The footage showed only tail of the ill-fated chopper.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) chief Hossein Salami went to crash-landing site. Al Monitor reported: “The chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Hossein Baqeri, ordered the Army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and the Law Enforcement Command to mobilize in search of Raisi.” It quoted Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
Earlier, Turky had notified the coordinates of the crash site to Iran. “Akinci UAV identifies source of heat suspected to be wreckage of helicopter carrying Iranian President Raisi and shares its coordinates with Iranian authorities,” Turkey’s Anadolu posted on X.
Ragip Soylu, a Turkish journalist, quoted Fars news agency, saying that no wreckage had been found from the coordinates given by the long-range drone. “Fars News Agency says the rescue teams so far have not found any traces of the wreckage of the crashed helicopter of Ibrahim Raisi at the coordinates announced by the Turkish drone,” Soylu stated on X.
Press TV earlier showed footages of the Iranian rescuers reaching the location of the heat source detected by the Turkish drone. It said that no traces of Raisi’s helicopter were found.
Earlier, it was stated that a helicopter in the convoy carrying Raisi had hard-landed in a forested area. Raisi had gone to the border areas with Azerbaijan on Sunday to inaugurate a dam project.
Raisi had recently travelled to Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Iran has been in the eye of the geostrategic crosshair over the Middle East tension involving Israel.
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