Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s former president and one of Israel’s most outspoken adversaries, was reportedly eliminated Saturday morning during Israel’s opening strike on Iran at the outset of the war dubbed “Roar of the Lion.” Iranian media outlets reported the development Sunday.

According to the reports, Ahmadinejad was killed together with his bodyguards.

Ahmadinejad served as Iran’s sixth president for approximately eight years and was widely regarded as one of the regime’s most vocal and extreme figures in his rhetoric against Israel. In later years, tensions reportedly developed between him and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and his attempts to run again for the presidency were blocked.

Journalist Amit Segal reported Sunday that Ahmadinejad had been under house arrest in recent weeks after allegedly attempting to carry out a coup aimed at steering Iran in an even more extreme direction than the current regime under Khamenei.

Veteran Arab affairs analyst Zvi Yehezkeli said following the reports of the assassination that Ahmadinejad would be remembered as the Iranian president who advanced a hardline conservative agenda focused on pursuing nuclear capabilities and strengthening Hezbollah.

According to Yehezkeli, Ahmadinejad also revived Holocaust denial and intensified antisemitic rhetoric, fostering a generation within the Revolutionary Guards that pursued nuclear ambitions and expanded military capabilities in pursuit of what he described as the Shiite regime’s broader ideological goals.

Yehezkeli recounted on his social media platforms: “I personally saw him through our television cameras about 15 years ago when we stood on Mount Adir to watch his victory visit to Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon. He arrived there with Nasrallah, threw a stone within the compound toward the Israeli border, and promised to destroy Israel.”