A senior Iranian cleric who was also a representative of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneiwas killed in an attack by a gunman in a province in the north of the country, the official Irna news agency reported, adding that the assailant had been arrested.

75 year old Abbas Ali Soleimani he was one of 88 members of the Assembly of Experts tasked with electing Iran’s Supreme Leader, the country’s highest authority.

He was “killed this morning in a shootout” in the city. Bambulsar, which is located on the shores of the Caspian Sea, about 230 kilometers north of Tehran, Irna reports citing an official. “The attacker was detained by security forces,” the department added.

Ayatollah Soleimani, who was also the representative of Supreme Spiritual Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Sistan-BaluchistanSunni-majority Shia province of Iran died of wounds in hospital after being shot at a bank in the city of Babolsar in the northern province of Mazandaran, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The Assembly of Experts is a powerful religious body that appoints, controls and, in theory, can remove the country’s supreme leader.

The southern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and is one of the poorest in Iran, has been fighting anti-government protests for months over the death of a young Iranian-Kurdish Mahsa Amini in September after she was arrested by the vice police.

AFP-Reuters