Ayatollah Khomeini’s Son Dies

Ahmad Khomeini, son of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and an enigma in Iranian politics, died Friday. He was 50.

Khomeini “left for heavenly abode today, plunging the nation into gloom,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency said in announcing the death.

A cleric and politician, Khomeini had been in a coma for six days after suffering a massive cardiac arrest on Sunday.

Since his father’s death, the middle-ranking Shiite Muslim cleric, known as a hojatoleslam, had been a member of the Supreme National Security Council, which oversees defense and state security policy.