Iran’s top security official and the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij militia were both killed in overnight strikes in a blow to the country’s leadership, Israel’s defence minister said Tuesday, while Tehran defiantly fired new salvos of missiles and drones at its Gulf Arab neighbours and Israel.
Both security official Ali Larijani and Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani were “eliminated last night,” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died in an airstrike February 28, the first day of the war launched by the United States and Israel, and other top leaders from the Iranian theocracy have been killed since then.
Iranian state media did not immediately confirm either death. However, it said a message from Larijani’s office would be published shortly.
The announcement came after the Israeli military had earlier said it had carried out a “wide-scale wave of strikes” across Iran’s capital and stepped up strikes on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
Israel also reported two incoming salvos before dawn from Iran at Tel Aviv and elsewhere, and said Hezbollah targeted Israel’s north.
Incoming Iranian missiles on the United Arab Emirates prompted Dubai, a major transit hub for international travel, to briefly shut its airspace and a man was killed by the debris of a missile intercepted over Abu Dhabi.