The United States believes an Iranian military satellite launch this week was overseen by a high-ranking commander involved in past attacks on American targets, a senior administration official said on Thursday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a declassified assessment of the launch determined that it was overseen by Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force, at a site in eastern Iran. Hajizadeh was behind the downing of a U.S. military drone in the Gulf last June, a missile attack on U.S. service members in Iraq in January, and the downing of a Ukrainian Airlines flight near Tehran the same month, the official said.
