Israel says Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani is killed, no confirmation from Iran

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that the military had killed Iran’s security chief and the head of its Basij militia in airstrikes overnight.

Katz said in a statement he had been informed by the military that Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani had been killed.

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Iranian state media published a handwritten note by Larijani commemorating Iranian sailors killed in a US attack whose funeral was expected on Tuesday but there was no immediate comment by Tehran on Katz’s remarks.

Larijani would be the most senior figure assassinated since Supreme Leader Khamenei was killed on the first day of Israeli-US airstrikes on February 28.

Larijani on Friday openly attended a mass rally in Tehran alongside other top officials, dismissing the latest Israeli-US attacks on the capital as being “out of desperation.”

“These attacks are out of fear, out of desperation. One who is strong wouldn’t bomb demonstrations at all. It’s clear that it has failed,” Larijani told state TV at the time while marching for the annual Quds Day rally in support of the Palestinian cause.

Later that day, the US offered a reward of up to $10 million for information on senior Iranian military and intelligence officials, including Larijani, as part of a list of 10 figures linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Last week, he issued a veiled threat to US President Donald Trump, warning him to be careful “not to be eliminated” and saying the Islamic Republic was not afraid of his “empty threats.”

Katz also said that Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Basij forces, had also been killed.

The Basij militia is a part-time paramilitary force under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that is often used to quell protests inside Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the Israeli leader had ordered “the elimination of senior officials of the Iranian regime.”

The US-Israeli war on Iran is in its third week, with at least 2,000 people killed and no end in sight. The Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed off and US allies have rebuffed US President Donald Trump’s calls for them to help to reopen the vital waterway, through which about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows.

There was no let-up in attacks by both sides early on Tuesday, with Iran launching missiles on Israel overnight, underscoring that Tehran retains the capacity to carry out long-range strikes despite more than two weeks of pounding by US and Israeli weapons.

The Israeli military said it was targeting “Iranian regime infrastructure” with a new wave of strikes across Tehran, as well as Hezbollah sites in Beirut, a day after saying it had drawn up detailed plans for at least three more weeks of war with Iran.

With Reuters

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