UPDATE - Twitter suspends fake Iran supreme leader account

UPDATES TO REFLECT TWITTER STATEMENT

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) - Twitter on Friday permanently suspended a fake account purporting to be associated with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The account was suspended after being found to violate Twitter's platform manipulation policy for being a fake account, a Twitter spokesperson said, according to multiple reports. It was also in violation of Twitter's abusive behavior policy.

The action was taken after the fake Khamenei account sent a tweet from @khamenei_site in which it vowed "Vengeance is inevitable" and shared an image of a golfer resembling former US President Donald Trump under the shadow of a large drone.

The account was voicing revenge for the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' Quds Force commander who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3, 2020.

*Michael Hernandez contributed to this report from Washington