The political deputy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy was killed in a car accident on Monday, according to reports by both pro- and anti-government sources.
According to the reports, which appeared in IRGC-run Fars News Agency and the anti-regime London-based outlet Iran International, he was killed after his car overturned in the Kerman Province of southeastern Iran.
Police forces and emergency teams arrived at the scene of the accident, and Akbarzadeh was evacuated to a medical center, where he succumbed to his severe injuries, according to Fars.
The reports stated that authorities have launched an investigation into the circumstances and causes of the accident.
It was also noted that earlier this month, Akbarzadeh was among those sanctioned by the European Union for supporting measures that restrict freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz - measures that led to the recent post-ceasefire tit-for-tat strikes between the US and Iran.
IRGC members killed throughout Iran by Kurdish insurgency, connection unclear
This comes after four members of Iran's IRGC were killed, and several others were wounded in what the IRGC described as "terrorist" shootings in western Iran on the same day as the crash.
Rojhelat.Info, an online resource that mostly covers Kurdish issues in Iran, noted that armed clashes were continuing throughout Iran between Kurdish insurgents and the IRGC.
It is currently unclear whether the car crash is related to the growing insurgency - that is, whether it was an accident or a targeted assassination.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was quoted in a meeting with the Grand Ayatollahs in the Iranian city of Qom on the day of the crash, saying, "the enemies think that by applying pressure and creating insecurity, they would create the conditions for internal instability and the collapse of the country, but the unity, solidarity, and conscious presence of the people disrupted all their calculations and their goals were not realized."
James Genn, Jonah Davidov, and Seth J. Frantzman contributed to this report.