Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that top Iranian official Ali Larijani was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Iran last night.
Earlier, the IDF had confirmed the targeting of Iran’s National Security Council Secretary Larijani.
The IDF said Ghulamreza Soleimani, commander of the Basij paramilitary force, was killed in a separate attack. According to Katz’s office, during an assessment this morning, Katz said, “Larijani and the Basij commander were killed overnight, and they join Khamenei, the head of the destruction program, and all those murdered members of the ‘axis of evil’ in the depths of hell.”
Let us tell you that Iran did not immediately react to this claim, and it was also not immediately clear on what basis Israel had made this assessment. If the report is confirmed, Larijani would be Iran’s most high-ranking official to be killed since the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the beginning of the war.
Larijani was an influential figure in Iran’s leadership, seen by some as the ‘de facto ruler’ after Khamenei’s death, especially when new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei was nowhere to be seen in public.
Apart from this, the IDF says that the deputy commander of Basij and other senior officers of this paramilitary force were also killed in this attack. The Basij are known for their role in violently suppressing anti-government protests, and are believed to be responsible for numerous deaths of Iranian civilians.