Israel’s defense minister said Tuesday that Iran’s top security official and the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ volunteer force were killed in overnight strikes in Iran, claiming to have taken out two of Tehran’s most senior remaining officials.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, and Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of the Basij, were “eliminated” in strikes overnight, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
Iranian authorities did not immediately comment on the strikes or Israel’s claims. A post on Larijani’s X feed appeared to show a handwritten tribute to Iranian Navy servicemen ahead of their funeral this week, but it was not clear when it was written.
“They have joined the head of the destruction program, Khamenei, and all those neutralized from the Axis of Evil in the depths of hell,” Katz said in the statement, referring to the former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. He also praised the Israeli military’s chief of staff for carrying out the attacks.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the IDF to continue hunting the leadership of the regime of terror and oppression in Iran, to repeatedly lop off the head of the octopus and prevent it from growing back,” Katz said.
“U. S. President Trump spoke about the high turnover rate of Iranian leadership. As morning breaks on Washington time, we will update him that this high turnover rate continues and is even accelerating following the neutralization of two of the highest remaining senior officials.”
The IDF confirmed Soleimani’s death in a statement on X, saying he had commanded the Basij for six years. “Under Soleimani, the Basij unit led the main repression operations in Iran, employing severe violence, widespread arrests, and the use of force against civilian demonstrators,” it said.
The post Israel says it killed Ali Larijani, Iran’s top security official, in strike appeared first on Washington Post.
