Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday (March 17) the Israeli military had killed Iran’s security chief and the head of its Basij militia in airstrikes overnight, Reuters reports.
Katz said in a video statement that he had been informed by the military that Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani had been killed.
Iranian state media published a handwritten note by Larijani commemorating Iranian sailors killed in a U.S. 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 Ayatollah Khamenei was killed on the first day of Israeli-U.S. airstrikes on February 28.
Katz said 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.
The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is in its third week, with at least 2,000 people killed and no end in sight.
