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The Biden State Department issued an official message of condolences on Monday after learning that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash.

Raisi was known to lead “Death to America” chants during public appearances. “In February, during a rally in which onlookers burned American and Israeli flags, he slammed the U.S. for supporting ‘the Zionist regime’s crimes against humanity in Gaza,’” The Free Beacon reports.

“I say to the enemies; you want to hear the word of the people? These are the great people of Iran,” Raisi was quoted as saying, as the crowd chanted “death to America” and “death to Israel.”

“The United States expresses its official condolences for the death of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, foreign minister [Hossein] Amir-Abdollahian, and other members of their delegation in a helicopter crash in northwest Iran,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. “As Iran selects a new president, we reaffirm our support for the Iranian people and their struggle for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

From The Free Beacon:

Raisi—who is known as “the Butcher of Tehran”—was one of the main architects of a 1988 massacre in Iran that killed around 5,000 regime opponents. Raisi at the time served on the hardline government’s “death committee” that issued death sentences to scores of political opponents.

Raisi was sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2019 for his role in committing mass human rights abuses “over three decades.”