Iranian state news on Saturday aired an apparent interview with Ali Shamkhani — a close aide to Iran’s supreme leader who had previously been reported dead by both Israeli and Iranian media.
Mystery mounted about Shamkhani’s fate in the days after he was reported dead following Israel’s June 13 strikes on Iran.
Last Friday, multiple Iranian outlets — including IRNA, Tasnim and Fars — claimed Shamkhani had not died but instead had been “severely injured and hospitalized” in the strike. They did not, however, release new photos of him.
Then Shamkhani appeared in pictures from Iranian state media coverage of Saturday’s state funeral for those slain during the 12-day conflict with Israel.
On the same day, Iranian state news agency IRIB ran what it billed as Shamkhani’s first television interview with Iranian state media since the attack.
CNN cannot independently verify his identity or the date the interview was recorded.
More on the interview: Shamkhani is shown holding a walking stick and using a breathing aid. He references an Israeli strike on his home, saying he was trapped by rubble for three hours following the attack.
“I did my morning prayer while under the rubble,” he said.
IRIB also released footage of what it said was Shamkhani’s home, reduced to broken concrete and rebar.
“At first, I thought it was an earthquake. But when I heard the sound of vehicles, I realized it was not,” he said in the interview, adding that he sustained internal injuries in the attack and that his rib cage was fractured.
“I know why they targeted me, but I cannot say,” he added.
CNN has reached out to Israeli authorities for comment.
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