--- title: "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former President and Iraq War antagonist allegedly killed by an Israeli missile" date: "2026-03-02" modified: "2026-03-09" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake.md" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/history/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-killed-by-israel-missile/" categories: - "History" - "Iraq War" - "Military News" - "War History" tags: - "Iran" - "Iraq War" - "Quick Hits" --- # Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former President and Iraq War antagonist allegedly killed by an Israeli missile ![Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at columbia Danielle Zalcman]() *This f\*cking guy. (Daniella Zalcman)* Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who served Iran as President from 2005 to 2013, was killed in an Israeli missile strike on his residence in Tehran, [according to Iranian officials](). The report has not yet been confirmed by the United States or Israel, and Iranian media later reported that he was alive and taken to a safe place. It was during Ahmadinejad's tenure as president that Tehran first announced its ability to enrich uranium and that Iran had finally [become a nuclear state](). It was also during his tenure that Iran became the chief antagonist against the U.S. in Iraq, funding and arming Shia militias that destabilized the country and attacked American troops. The then-President of Iran stated that the Iranian nuclear program was for peaceful purposes only, and that development of a nuclear weapon was not only illegal, but [against the Shia faith](). Despite his assertion and the subsequent fatwa against nuclear weapons from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ahmadinejad's rhetoric and actions stoked continuing fear of an Iranian weapon. Ahmadinejad repeatedly criticized the Christian and Jewish faiths, calling them a "[deviation]()" from the right path, and threatening a government-led crackdown on the practices inside Iran. He also made repeated statements [denying the Holocaust](), and was accused of calling for Israel to be "[wiped off the map]()." A few years after his announcement of Iranian enriched uranium, the Islamic Republic test-fired [a missile with a 1,200-mile range](). For veterans of the Iraq War, however, Ahmadinejad's lasting legacy is his support for Shia militias operating inside Iraq from 2003 to 2011. The U.S. prepared [a trove of evidence]() showing that his government, via the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), smuggled arms and money into Iraq for use against American and Coalition forces, to arm anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi army, and to form Shiite "death squads." When American documents related to the Iraq War were released by WikiLeaks, they revealed that Iranian intervention in the Iraqi insurgency amounted to a "[shadow war]()" between U.S. forces and Iranian proxies. Iraqis were sent to Iran to train as snipers as the IRGC planned the assassinations of Iraqi officials and provided Chinese-made surface-to-air missiles to insurgents. Most damning, however, is that the Iranian Quds Force provided explosively formed penetrators (EFP) for roadside bombs, giving insurgent-made IEDs the power to punch through U.S. armored vehicles, even those designed to resist conventional IEDs and mines. It is estimated that Iranian-provided EFPs killed or maimed [more than a thousand U.S. troops](). ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]() ## More - [The history of American-Iranian relations is a lesson in unintended consequences]() - [Iranian fanatics tried to spark a war with the US during Desert Storm]() - [Iraq’s ‘Triangle of Death’ is still famously dangerous real estate]() - [A Saddam Hussein loyalist still fights an insurgency in Iraq]() - [That time an F-14 killed three MiGs with a single missile]() - [Why Saddam Hussein buried Iraq’s air force in the desert]() - [Everything you need to know about the Iraq War Battle of Sadr City]() - [The US Navy unloaded on Iran in the most explosive surface battle since World War II]()