Iran says senior cleric on Assembly of Experts shot dead

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A senior Shiite cleric in Iran has been shot and killed in an attack in a northern province along the Caspian Sea. An attacker shot to death Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani in Babolsar in Iran’s Mazandaran province on Wednesday. That’s according to a state television report. State TV said police later arrested the attacker. It said Soleimani had been at a bank in the city when another man seized a guard’s firearm and began shooting over a personal dispute with an employee, striking and killing the cleric. Soleimani served on the Assembly of Experts, an 88-seat panel that oversees and appoints Iran’s supreme leader. He also once was the personal representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Iran’s restive Sistan and Baluchestan province.