Ali Larijani, considered to be Iran’s ‘top leader,’ killed in targeted Israeli airstrike

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announces that Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, considered to be Iran’s de facto leader, was killed in an airstrike.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News Staff

Two senior Iranian security officials were killed in airstrikes in Tehran, Israel’s security establishment announced on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, the IDF said that Brig. Gen. Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Basij militia, was killed in an airstrike overnight in central Tehran.

Hours later, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz (Likud) announced that Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was also killed in an Israeli airstrike overnight.

In a video statement recorded during a situational assessment at the IDF’s Kirya headquarters in Tel Aviv, Katz confirmed that both Larijani and Soleimani were eliminated.

“I have just been updated by the [IDF] Chief of Staff that the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Larijani, and the head of the Basij — Iran’s main repression force — Soleimani, were eliminated overnight and have joined the head of the extermination program, [Ali] Khamenei, and all the eliminated members of the axis of evil in the depths of hell.”

“The IDF continues to operate in Iran with great intensity, against regime targets, suppressing missile-launch capabilities and destroying key strategic infrastructure across all domains, and is pushing Iran decades backward. The extermination program is being destroyed, and its leaders and capabilities are being neutralized,” Katz continued.

Soleimani commanded the Basij militia for the past six years and played a key role in crushing anti-regime protests across Iran from late December through January.

Larijani, a close confidant of Iran’s slain supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was a longtime key figure in Iran’s security establishment and played a central role in shaping Iran’s long-term national strategies. He was widely considered to be Iran’s de facto leader with the most prominence and power.

He reportedly oversaw nuclear talks with the United States while shaping Iranian foreign policy.

Following the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28, Larijani is believed to have served as the de facto leader of the regime.