A senior Iranian official and adviser to Iran’s supreme leader who had been presumed killed in an Israeli attack last month was seen walking with a cane at a funeral service for military commanders over the weekend in Tehran.
Israel had attacked the penthouse duplex apartment of the official, Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani, with a missile when it launched military strikes against Iran on June 13, beginning a 12-day war that was later joined by the United States.
The apartment, in a high-rise building in the affluent northern part of Tehran, sustained severe damage, photographs and videos on Iran’s state media showed. The ceiling and floors collapsed in a pile of mangled debris. State media reports said at the time that the admiral had been severely injured and hospitalized. The New York Times, citing a person close to his family and Iranian officials, reported that he had not survived the attack.
Admiral Shamkhani had not been seen or heard from publicly since the attack, fueling reports that he was dead. But on Saturday, he attended the funeral procession, wearing a black suit and shirt, and struggling to walk while clutching a cane. He appeared visibly weak, his face thinner, and his back and shoulders hunched over.
Israel launched the military strike on Iran, it said, to target its nuclear facilities, missile factories, fuel depots and gas refineries. The strikes also hit residential apartment buildings where, it said, military commanders and nuclear scientists lived. Iran has said that the strikes killed at least 935 people, including 132 women and 38 children. The Iranian government has also said that 30 commanders and military personnel were killed.
Admiral Shamkhani, 69, is one of Iran’s most influential political figures. He had supervised negotiations with the United States over Iran’s nuclear program before talks collapsed. He had served for years as secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council and, most recently, had been appointed as a senior adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.