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List of Iranian assassinations

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List of Iranian assassinations refers to a list of alleged and confirmed assassinations, reported to have been conducted by the Pahlavi Dynasty, by the Islamic Republic of Iran, or by opposition groups.

The Organization of Intelligence and National Security carried out political motivated assassinations against dissidents and opposition leaders during the reign of the Pahlavi Dynasty. Iranian security and intelligence have assassinated opposition members, most notably Kurdish dissidents of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran during the 1980s and 1990s.

By Pahlavi regime (1953–1979)

<tbody> </tbody>
Date City Country Target Position Perpetrator
12 August 1970 Baghdad Iraq Teymur Bakhtiar Former founder of SAVAK. Alleged SAVAK operation.[1]
29 June 1976 Tehran Iran Hamid Ashraf Leader of Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas. A SAVAK operation.

By the Islamic Republic of Iran

<tbody> </tbody>
Date City Country Target Position Perpetrator
7 December 1979 Paris France Shahriar Shafiq Head of the Iran Azad Group, nephew of the last Shah of Iran Muslim Liberation Group[2][3][4][5]
22 July 1980 Bethesda, Maryland United States Ali Akbar Tabatabaei President of the Iran Freedom Foundation, former press attache to the Iranian embassy Dawud Salahuddin[6][7][8]
7 February 1984 Paris France Gholam Ali Oveisi Former Chief Commander of the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces Islamic Jihad Organization[9][10][5]
19 May 1987 Vienna Austria Hamid Reza Chitgar[11] Representative of Labor Party of Iran Suspected Iranian agents
13 July 1989 Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou[12] Head of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
Abdullah Ghaderi Azar[13][14] Assistant to the Head of Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
1 April 1990 Nynäshamn Sweden Karim Mohammedzadeh Iranian Kurdish dissident Reza Taslimi[15]
24 April 1990 Coppet Switzerland Kazem Rajavi Representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Former Ambassador of Iran to the UN[16] Suspected Iranian agents
15 August 1990 Konya Turkey Elî Kaşifpûr Member central committee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
6 September 1990 Västerås Sweden Efat Ghazi Member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
11 July 1991 Tsukuba Japan Hitoshi Igarashi (allegedly)[17] Japanese translator of Salman Rushdie's the Satanic Verses
6 August 1991 Suresnes France Shapour Bakhtiar Former Prime Minister of Iran. Head of the National Resistance Movement of Iran Ali Vakili Rad[18][5]
7 August 1992 Bonn Germany Fereydoun Farrokhzad Iranian dissident Iranian-paid Basque separatists[19][20]
17 September 1992 Berlin Sadegh Sharafkandi Head of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan Mykonos restaurant assassinations
Fattah Abdoli One of the leaders of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
Homayoun Ardalan
Nouri Dehkordi[21]
6 July 1996 Stockholm Sweden Kamran Hedayati Iranian Kurdish dissident Suspected Iranian agents
21 September 2010 Tehran Iran Abdoulreza Soudbakhsh Iranian physician and university professor Suspected Iranian agents[22]
15 December 2015 Almere Netherlands Mohammad-Reza Kolahi Samadi People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) Suspected Iranian agents
29 April 2017 Istanbul Turkey Saeed Karimian Iranian television executive, owner of Dubai-based GEM TV VAJA
8 November 2017 The Hague Netherlands Ahmad Mola Nissi[23][24] Arab Struggle Movement Suspected Iranian agents
14 November 2019 Istanbul Turkey Masoud Molavi Ex-Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps insider, whistleblower Suspected Iranian agents

By opposition groups

<tbody> </tbody>
Date City Country Target Description Perpetrator
11 March 1946 Tehran Iran Ahmad Kasravi Iranian linguist, historian and Democrat Party member Fada'iyan-e Islam
13 February 1948 Mohammad Masud Iranian journalist Tudeh Party of Iran[25]
5 November 1949 Abdolhossein Hazhir Prime Minister of Iran Fada'iyan-e Islam
7 March 1951 Haj Ali Razmara
27 January 1965 Hassan Ali Mansur
23 April 1979 Iran Mohammad-Vali Gharani Chief-of-Staff of the Iranian Army Forghan group
1 May 1979 Morteza Motahhari President of Council of Islamic Revolution
2 November 1979 Tabriz Mohammad Ali Qazi Tabatabaei Representative of the Supreme Leader in East Azerbaijan People's Mujahedin of Iran
28 June 1981 Tehran Mosa Kalantari Ministry of Roads & Urban Development
Mohammad Beheshti Chief Justice of Iran
Mohammad Montazeri Member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards
30 August 1981 Mohammad-Ali Rajai President of Iran
Mohammad-Javad Bahonar Prime Minister of Iran
21 September 1981 Tabriz Mir Asadollah Madani Representative of the Supreme Leader in East Azerbaijan
22 August 1998 Tehran Asadollah Lajevardi Iranian prosecutor
10 April 1999 Ali Sayad Shirazi Iranian Army Commander

Further reading

See also

References

  1. ^ "DEATH OF SHAH'S FOE IN IRAQ IS REPORTED". The New York Times. 1970-08-23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  2. ^ J. Prial, Frank (1979-12-08). "Nephew of the Shah Is Slain in Paris". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  3. ^ "Shah's nephew assassinated by 'death squad'". Middlesboro Daily News. Paris. UPI. 8 December 1979. Retrieved 18 June 2026.
  4. ^ Sajid Rizvi (8 December 1979). "Iranian situation is very unclear". The Bryan Times. Tehran. UPI. Retrieved 18 June 2026.
  5. ^ a b c Khoshnood, Ardavan M. (2025-11-17). "The Islamic Republic of Iran's use of criminal intermediaries for extraterritorial assassinations and covert violence: a gray zone strategy of outsourced repression". Small Wars & Insurgencies. 36 (8): 1433–1461. doi:10.1080/09592318.2025.2555583. ISSN 0959-2318.
  6. ^ "The last alleged Iranian assassination plot on U.S. soil was a success". NBC Investigations. 13 October 2011. Archived from the original on 2017-04-19. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  7. ^ Ottaway, David B. (1996-08-25). "THE LONE ASSASSIN". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  8. ^ Silverman, Ira (29 July 2002). "An American Terrorist". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 4 September 2014. Retrieved 18 June 2026.
  9. ^ "Two Iranian exiles are assassinated in Paris". Lodi News Sentinel. Paris. United Press International. 8 February 1984. Retrieved 18 June 2026.
  10. ^ Vinocur, John (1984-02-08). "EXILED IRANIAN GENERAL IS KILLED WITH BROTHER BY GUNMEN IN PARIS". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  11. ^ "Murder case linked to Iran". Toronto Star. 20 July 1987. p. A20. Retrieved 18 June 2026 – via Proquest.
  12. ^ Tyler, Patrick E. (2 August 1989). "Killings in Austria, Emirates Laid to Iran;Assassinations Are Said to Bear Marks of Sophisticated Agents: [FINAL Edition]". The Washington Post. p. A01. Retrieved 19 June 2026 – via Proquest.
  13. ^ "Gunmen Kill Kurdish Exiles Holding a Meeting in Vienna". The New York Times. 1989-07-15. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  14. ^ "Kurdish leader killed in Vienna - UPI Archives". UPI. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  15. ^ Skeppholm, Teresa (2003). "I nationens intresse". Uppdrag granskning (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. Archived from the original on 2006-05-27. Retrieved 18 June 2026.
  16. ^ Cohen, Ronen A. (2018-11-02). "The Mojahedin-e Khalq versus the Islamic Republic of Iran: from war to propaganda and the war on propaganda and diplomacy". Middle Eastern Studies. 54 (6): 1000–1014. doi:10.1080/00263206.2018.1478813. ISSN 0026-3206.
  17. ^ Komamura, Yoshishige. "（3ページ目）迷宮入りの「悪魔の詩」訳者殺人、問題にされた2つのポイント【平成の怪事件簿】". デイリー新潮 (in Japanese). Retrieved 13 August 2022.
  18. ^ "Ali Vakili Rad: The perfect murder and an imperfect getaway". France 24. 2010-05-18. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  19. ^ "Former IRGC minister details Iran's global assassination campaign". Iran International. 2025-03-09. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  20. ^ Davar, Faramarz (13 March 2025). "Rafighdoost explained that armed operatives from the Basque separatist movement, whom he described as "Spanish Marxist separatists," committed the murders". IranWire. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  21. ^ "Funeral of Kurdish politician in Berlin". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-07-09. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  22. ^ Dehghan, Saeed Kamali (2011-08-25). "Iranian doctor murdered after examining rape victims, says his son". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  23. ^ Berg, Stephanie Van Den (2017-12-12). "Be careful, murdered Iranian activist's daughter tells European exiles". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  24. ^ "Three suspects arrested in connection with murder of Iranian activist in 2017 | NL Times". nltimes.nl. 2025-05-16. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  25. ^ Katouzian, H. (2008). "Private parts and public discourses in modern Iran". Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 28 (2). ISSN 1089-201X.
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