Israeli strikes have dealt a major blow to Iran’s military chain of command by killing at least six of its top generals, along with a senior politician and at least five nuclear scientists, according to Iranian state media and officials.
The Iranian military confirmed on Saturday that two more senior military commanders had been killed since the strikes started on Friday. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, moved swiftly to replace the military leaders in an apparent bid to project stability and prevent a power vacuum.
The Iranian government said that three more nuclear scientists, Ali Bakaei Karimi, Mansour Asgari and Saeed Borji, had been killed on Saturday. Dr. Bakaei Karimi was killed along with his wife and two children.
On Sunday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps confirmed the deaths of several senior commanders in the airspace unit.
The Tasnim News Agency, which is closely affiliated with Iran’s government, said Davood Sheikhian, Mohammad Baqer Taherpoor, Masoud Tayyeb, Khosro Hassani, Javad Jarsara and Mansour Safarpour died in an airstrike on Friday that also killed Iran’s military chief and the unit’s leader.
Here is what we know about some of those killed:
Military Generals
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Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the armed forces and the second-highest commander after Ayatollah Khamenei. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA.
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Gen. Hossein Salami, commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran’s primary military force. He was replaced by Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, IRNA reported.
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Gen. Gholamali Rashid, deputy commander in chief of the Armed Forces.
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Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the airspace unit of the Revolutionary Guards.
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Gen. Gholamreza Mehrabi, the deputy intelligence chief of the Armed Forces.
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Gen. Mehdi Rabbani, the deputy commander of operations for the Armed Forces.
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Gen. Davood Sheikhian, the commander of air defense.
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Gen. Khosro Hassani, the deputy intelligence chief of the aerospace unit.
Politicians
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Ali Shamkhani, one of Iran’s most influential politicians and a close confidant of Ayatollah Khamenei, was killed, according to three senior officials and Iranian media reports. He had been overseeing nuclear talks with the United States as part of a committee named by the supreme leader to direct the negotiations.
Nuclear Scientists
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Fereydoun Abbasi, the former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
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Mohammad Mehdi Tehranji, a theoretical physicist and president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran.
Francesca Regalado is a Times reporter covering breaking news.
Euan Ward is a reporter contributing to The Times from Beirut.
Farnaz Fassihi is the United Nations bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the organization, and also covers Iran and the shadow war between Iran and Israel. She is based in New York.
Lynsey Chutel is a Times reporter based in London who covers breaking news in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
The post These Are Iranian Generals and Scientists Killed by Israel appeared first on New York Times.
