Iran confirms security chief Ali Larijani has been killed

Iran confirmed Tuesday evening that its top security official, Ali Larijani, was killed, according to Iranian media reports cited by Reuters.

Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the “elimination” of Ali Larijani, one of Iran’s top leaders, and General Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of the Basij militia, following overnight Israeli airstrikes in Iran.

“The Chief of Staff has just informed me that Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and Soleimani, head of the Basij — the regime’s central repressive apparatus—were eliminated last night,” Katz said in a video message. “They have joined in the depths of hell [Ali] Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, killed along with several other senior Iranian officials in the early hours of the Israeli-American bombings on Feb. 28.”

Since the death of Supreme Leader Khamenei, Larijani had become one of the main faces of Iranian power.

Under the tent

“He is the de facto leader of the Iranian regime, especially over the past two weeks, but even before that he was seen as the one making decisions and pulling the strings,” an anonymous military official said.

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Larijani “directed attacks on the region” and ordered strikes against Israel and Gulf countries, the official added.

Basij militia chief General Soleimani was “eliminated in an airstrike targeting the temporary tent headquarters they were using, out of fear of using their usual bases.” Alongside the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij has been a target of Israeli airstrikes for several days. The militia recruits mostly youth and acts as an ideological organization embedded in all institutions and levels of society.

“It is part of the armed apparatus of the Iranian terrorist regime” and “carried out major repression operations, using extreme violence, mass arrests, and force against civilian protesters,” the Israeli army said.

“The elimination of Soleimani adds to that of dozens of senior commanders of Iran’s armed forces killed during the operation and constitutes a new severe blow to the regime’s command and control structures in security matters,” the army added.

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Islamic Jihad also targeted

The military official also reported a strike against one of the main leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Akram al-Ajouri, head of the al-Quds Brigades, the movement’s military wing, mainly active in Gaza. Ajouri “was in Iran, where he usually resides. We do not yet have information” on the outcome of the strike, the source said.

“We [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I] have instructed the Israeli army to relentlessly pursue the leaders of the terror and oppression regime in Iran,” Katz added. The Israeli army “continues operations in Iran at high intensity, targeting regime resources, neutralizing missile capabilities, and destroying key strategic infrastructure.”

He said the Islamic Revolution “is being dismantled, and its leaders and capabilities are being neutralized.” Katz congratulated “the pilots and ground teams of the Air Force, as well as all branches and intelligence personnel” for this “operation, which will go down in history as an unprecedented achievement in modern aerial warfare.” He concluded: “Bravo to the Israeli army — keep it up!”

Earlier, Netanyahu’s office had announced: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders the elimination of senior officials of the Iranian regime,” posting a photo showing Netanyahu smiling on the phone, with a general beside him and another aide holding a notebook under the flag of Israel.