The commander of U.S. Central Command said Sunday that the death of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy commander Adm. Alireza Tangsiri in an Israeli airstrike had made the region safer, while warning that U.S. military strikes on the force would continue.
In a statement, Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said Tangsiri had led the IRGC-N for eight years and accused the force of harassing merchant shipping, attacking vessels with one-way drones and missiles, and killing civilians.
Cooper said Tangsiri had been designated by the U.S. Treasury as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in June 2019. He added that secondary sanctions tied to drone development were imposed in 2024.
The CENTCOM commander also said that since the start of Operation Epic Fury, 92% of the large ships in the Iranian Navy had been eliminated. As a result, he said, the IRGC-N had completely lost the ability to project power in the Middle East or elsewhere.
Cooper described the force as being in “irreversible decline” following the loss of its longtime commander.
He said U.S. military strikes on the IRGC-N would continue and called on Iranian personnel serving in the force to abandon their posts and return home to avoid what he described as unnecessary injury or death.
The IDF also reported that it killed Behnam Rezaei, the head of the IRGC Navy Intelligence Directorate. The ministry added that Rezaei was in charge of gathering information about countries in the region and working with different intelligence agencies.
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