Quicksplained: Who was Ali Mohammad Naini, the IRGC spokesperson killed in airstrikes?

Yet another high-profile Iranian leader has been killed in the war.

This time, Ali Mohammad Naini, spokesperson for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has been taken out by Israeli airstrikes.

The IRGC, in a statement, said that Naini was “martyred in a criminal, cowardly terrorist attack by the American-Zionist side at dawn.” “His transformative ideas and effective models in ‘soft war’ will continue guiding the revolution’s guards against arrogant powers,” the statement read further.

But what do we know about Naini? Who was he?

Let’s take a closer look.

• Not much personal information is known about Naini.

• He had been serving as the IRGC's spokesperson since 2024.

• As a spokesperson of the IRGC, Naini worked on strategic communications and public messaging.

• He usually appeared in the media at times of crisis, particularly during tensions with the United States and Israel.

• Naini had earlier mocked Trump’s claim that the Iranian Navy had been destroyed. “Didn’t Trump say that Iran’s navy has been destroyed? If so, let him send his ships into the Persian Gulf if he dares,” Naini was quoted as saying by the semi-official _Tasnim_ news agency.

• “Our missile industry deserves a perfect score… and there is no concern in this regard, because even under wartime conditions we continue missile production,” Naini added.

• Naini is the fourth such Iranian leader to be killed in recent days.

• Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council; Brigadier General Gholamreza Soleimani, head of Iran’s Basij paramilitary forces; and Iran’s intelligence minister Esmail Khatib have been taken out in airstrikes in recent days.

• Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has said that more strikes and ‘surprises’ are to come.

• However, differences between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seem to be increasing over the Iran war.

• Trump surprised many when he took to social media to distance himself from airstrikes Israel had conducted on Iran’s South Pars gas field, which it shares with Qatar.

• The development comes as the Iran war has nearly reached the three-week mark.

• It also comes amid the price of Brent crude on Thursday briefly hitting $119 (Rs. 11,156.25) per barrel, which shook markets around the world.

With inputs from agencies