Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s ex-president who said "Israel must be wiped off the map," killed in Israeli airstrikes
https://nypost.com/2026/03/01/world-news/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-irans-ex-president-killed-in-israeli-airstrikes/
By Ariel Zilber
New York Post
Published March 1, 2026
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — a polarizing hardliner who became the face of Tehran’s nuclear defiance and incendiary anti-Israel rhetoric — was reportedly killed in Israeli airstrikes at the outset of the military operation inside Iran.
A report by the Israeli media outlet Ma’ariv stated that Ahmadinejad was under house arrest at the time and was killed in a targeted strike on his residence.
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reportedly killed in Israeli airstrikes during Saturday’s strikes inside Iran. | Anadolu via Getty Images
There was no immediate confirmation from Iranian authorities.
Ahmadinejad served as Iran’s sixth president from 2005 to 2013, rising from relative obscurity as mayor of Tehran to defeat establishment figure Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a surprise 2005 runoff.
His disputed 2009 reelection triggered the mass “Green Movement” protests, which were violently suppressed by security forces in one of the most serious internal crises of the Islamic Republic.
Critics at home and abroad described him as a confrontational ideologue whose economic management fueled inflation and whose rhetoric deepened Iran’s international isolation.
During his tenure, the United Nations Security Council imposed multiple rounds of sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, intensifying Tehran’s economic isolation.
Ahmadinejad became especially notorious in the West for his rhetoric toward Israel and his comments about the Holocaust.
In 2006, his government hosted a conference in Tehran widely condemned as a platform for Holocaust denial, drawing international outrage.
During a 2005 conference titled “A World Without Zionism,” he quoted Iran’s founding leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, who had referred to Israel as “the occupying regime of Jerusalem” and a “disgraceful cancerous growth” that “must be wiped off the map.”
His defenders later argued that translations of his remarks were disputed, while critics said the intent was unmistakably hostile.
His political base was closely aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij militia, which played key roles in consolidating his power and suppressing dissent.
In 2007, speaking at Columbia University in New York, Ahmadinejad declared that there were no homosexuals in Iran, prompting laughter from the audience and widespread ridicule.
His presidency was also marked by an unusual emphasis on Shiite messianic belief in the return of the Hidden Imam, which critics said blurred the line between theology and statecraft.
Internationally, he forged a high-profile alliance with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, framing their partnership as a united front against U.S. influence.
At home, his sweeping Mehr housing initiative and subsidy reforms were later blamed by critics for worsening inflation and economic mismanagement.
In his later years, he clashed openly with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and was repeatedly barred from running for president again, signaling his marginalization within the ruling establishment.
Khamenei was killed in Saturday morning’s opening wave of coordinated US-Israeli strikes on Tehran that obliterated Iran’s “Leadership House” compound, with confirmation later emerging via Iranian state-aligned announcements and major-wire reporting.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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