Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday that Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, had been killed in airstrikes overnight.
Katz said in a statement that he had been informed by the military that Larijani and the commander of Iran’s Basij forces, Gholamreza Soleimani, had both been killed, according to Reuters.
Iran has not yet confirmed the report.
A message attributed to Larijani was published on social media on Tuesday morning. The post showed a handwritten message commemorating sailors of Iran’s navy who had been killed, according to a Google translation.
Larijani was seen as the right-hand man of Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in strikes aimed at high-ranking Iranian officials at the beginning of the war on Feb. 28.
Iran has since retaliated by attacking its Gulf neighbors and targeting ships trying to pass through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Soleimani led the Basij forces, a key paramilitary force used to quell protests in the Islamic Republic.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a social media post Tuesday morning that Netanyahu had ordered the elimination of senior officials of the Iranian regime.
Larijani was last seen in public on March 13, according to a social media account in his name, which posted a picture that day of him taking part in the Quds Day march in Iran’s capital, Tehran.
An earlier post from the account said Iran was not scared of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s threats against Iran, saying that “even those greater than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation.”
“Watch out for yourself—lest you be eliminated!” the account posted on March 10, according to a translation.
The U.S. and Israeli-led war against Iran entered its 18th day on Tuesday, with no let up in the attacks from both sides.
Iran has targeted energy and transport infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates as part of its retaliatory strikes, boosting concerns of a prolonged global energy crisis.
Source: CNBC