(Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include more details on the Israeli strikes, the ongoing war and posts from Larjiani’s X account)
Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, on Tuesday said that Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, had been killed in an Israeli strike.
In a statement, as reported by Al Jazeera, Katz said he was just informed of the top Iranian security official’s death following Israeli strikes overnight.
“The prime minister and I have instructed the IDF to continue hunting down the leadership of the regime of terror and oppression in Iran,” Katz said.
There has been no confirmation or comments from Iran. However, Iranian state media published a handwritten note by Larijani commemorating Iranian sailors killed in a U.S. attack whose funeral was expected on Tuesday.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) earlier said it killed Gholamreza Soleimani, who had led Iran’s Basij, a volunteer paramilitary force that falls under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), for about six years.
Larijani was appointed in August last year by President Masoud Pezeshkian as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and as the representative of Iran’s late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to the council.
Larijani would be the most senior official assassinated since Khamenei was killed on the first day of Israeli-U.S. airstrikes that began on Feb. 28. He was last seen marching in Tehran at the al-Quds Day rally on Friday, according to Al Jazeera.
The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is in its third week, with at least 2,000 people killed. The Strait of Hormuz also remains largely closed off and U.S. allies have rejected President Donald Trump‘s calls for them to help to reopen the waterway, through which about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows.
Image via Shutterstock
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