Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that the head of Iran’s Security Service, Ali Larijani, was killed in an airstrike on Tehran. He did not provide any evidence to back this up.
Iran may have attempted to refute this claim by allegedly publishing a handwritten note by Larijani dated 17 March. A photo of the note, in particular, was published on Larijani’s X page.
The news about Larijani comes just after the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) claimed to have killed Gholamreza Suleimani, a commander of Iran’s Basij paramilitary forces, during the same wave of airstrikes on Tehran on March 16.
Yesterday, the IDF eliminated Gholamreza Suleimani, who has been the commander of the Basij unit for the past six years,” the IDF said in a statement on 17 March.
This report was neither confirmed nor contradicted by the Iranian side.
If confirmed dead, Larijani would become Iran’s top official after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated after Israel and the US began strikes on Iran.
On 28 February, the US launched a joint military operation with Israel against Iran. The strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and hit the country’s military and nuclear facilities.
Iran retaliates by striking US bases and infrastructure of Washington’s allies in the Persian Gulf.