Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect that Reuters is reporting the account as fake.
Twitter said Friday that they suspended a fake account posing as Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after the account called for an attack on former President Donald Trump, according to Reuters.
The account posted a photo of a man that looked like Trump playing golf under the shadow of what appeared to be a large drone, BBC News reported. The caption read, “vengeance is inevitable.”
“Soleimani’s murderer and he who ordered it will have to pay,” the rest of the post said.
CORRECTION: Twitter clarifies that it has suspended a fake account of Iran Supreme Leader Khamenei. We will delete our previous tweet.
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 22, 2021
#Twitter suspends account of #Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after it posted a call for an attack on Donald Trump to avenge the killing of its top military commander. pic.twitter.com/9dg0Jzl4pl
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) January 22, 2021
The threat is referring to revenge for the assassination of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, former head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, by a U.S. drone in Baghdad last January. Soleimani was “directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions of people,” Trump said at the time according to BBC. (RELATED: Soleimani Was Planning ‘Imminent Attacks’ That Could Have Killed Hundreds Of Americans, Top US Official Says)
A Twitter post from an account that reportedly does belong to Khamenei called for revenge over Soleimani’s death in a Dec. 16 post. “Those who ordered the murder of General Soleimani as well as those who carried this out should be punished,” the post said. “This revenge will certainly happen at the right time.”
Those who ordered the murder of General Soleimani as well as those who carried this out should be punished. This revenge will certainly happen at the right time.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) December 16, 2020
Only the fake account that posted the threat was suspended as of Friday morning, and it’s unclear whether the suspension is temporary or permanent. Other accounts that are associated with the ayatollah remain active.
Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s Twitter account following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol building. The social media platform also purged a large number of conservative accounts following the riot. Over 70,000 accounts were removed, according to Twitter, although many prominent accounts reported losing much more than 70,000 followers.