Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Iran’s powerful national security chief Ali Larijani was “eliminated last night”, along with the commander of Tehran’s Basij paramilitary force, General Gholam Reza Soleimani.
“I have just been updated by the Chief of Staff that Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and the head of the Basij – Iran’s central repression apparatus – [Soleimani], were eliminated last night,” Katz said in a statement released by his ministry.
There was no confirmation from Iran.
The killings again strip away top leaders from the Iranian theocracy after the February 28 strike that killed 86-year-old supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Commander of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force Gholam Reza Soleimani gives a press conference in Tehran in November 2019. Photo: APThe Israeli military said a strike on Monday killed Soleimani, but Iran did not immediately acknowledge the militia leader’s death.