A powerful Iranian cleric, a member of the Assembly of Experts that selects the country’s supreme leader, has been assassinated, state media said Wednesday.

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“Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani was killed this morning in an armed attack… the assailant was also arrested,” IRNA news agency reported, citing an official.

The attack took place in the city of Babolsar in the northern province of Mazandaran, the agency added.

Soleimani, 75, was previously the representative of the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

He had also been the imam who led the weekly Friday prayers in the cities of Kashan, in central Isfahan province, and Zahedan in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.

Under the constitution, the 88-strong Assembly of Experts is mandated with supervising, dismissing and electing the Supreme Leader.

Last April, a suspected jihadist attack in the northeastern shrine city of Mashhad led to the deaths of two clerics and the injury of another. (AFP)

Eid al-Fitr could begin on Saturday as the Shawwal moon is expected to be visible by the naked eye on Friday evening and not Thursday, according to astronomers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Al Arabiya reported.

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Technically, the moon will appear in the sky on Thursday evening, but it will not be illuminated by the sun’s rays and will be difficult to see without specialist equipment, Majid Abu Zahra from the Jeddah Astronomical Society said.

The moon will be “very easy to see with the naked eye if the sky is clear,” on Friday night, Abu Zahra added, as reported by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

However, officials could still declare Friday as the start of Eid if eyewitness sightings of the moon on Thursday are accepted.

Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court had previously called on people in the Kingdom to try to spot the moon signifying the end of Ramadan on Thursday evening.

At least 20 people were killed when the bus they were travelling in to perform Umrah in Makkah overturned.

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According to Saudi media, the accident occurred around 4pm local time on the 14km-long Aqabat Shaar road in the Asir province, as the bus was travelling from Khamis Mushayt to Abha.

The road, according to Saudi Press Agency, cuts through mountains, and has 11 tunnels and 32 bridges. When the bus was making its way down a bridge it underwent a brake failure, which caused it to crash into a barrier at the end of the bridge, overturn and catch fire. About 29 other people were also injured in the accident.