Israel defense minister says Iran national security chief Larijani killed
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Iran's security chief Ali Larijani attends a ceremony by the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah marking the first anniversary of Israel's assassination of their longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, in Beirut's southern suburbs on September 27, 2025. (AFP)
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JERUSALEM: Israel said Tuesday it had killed Iran’s powerful national security chief, Ali Larijani, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling him the leader of “the gang of gangsters” that runs the Islamic republic. Larijani’s death would be a massive blow to Iran just weeks after...
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AFP
March 17, 202612:33
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- Israeli defense minister says Ali Larijani, top Iranian security official, killed by Israel in overnight strike
JERUSALEM: Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Iran's security chief Ali Larijani had been killed in an Israeli strike.
“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 --, were eliminated last night,” Katz said in a statement released by his ministry.
Iranian state media published a handwritten note by Larijani commemorating Iranian sailors killed in a US 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-US 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.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the Israeli leader had ordered “the elimination of senior officials of the Iranian regime”.
A picture collage shows top Iranian security official Ali Larijani (L) and Iranian Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force. (Source: AP and AFP)
The US-Israeli war on Iran is in its third week, with at least 2,000 people killed and no end in sight.
There was no let-up in attacks by both sides early on Tuesday, with Iran launching missiles on Israel overnight, underscoring that Tehran retains the capacity to carry out long-range strikes despite more than two weeks of pounding by US and Israeli weapons.
The Israeli military said it was targeting “Iranian regime infrastructure” with a new wave of strikes across Tehran, as well as Hezbollah sites in Beirut, a day after saying it had drawn up detailed plans for at least three more weeks of war with Iran.
JERUSALEM: Israel said Tuesday it had killed Iran’s powerful national security chief, Ali Larijani, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling him the leader of “the gang of gangsters” that runs the Islamic republic. Larijani’s death would be a massive blow to Iran just weeks after...
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This is what Israel claims.