Iran’s national security council confirms death of its chief, Ali Larijani

Larijani’s death would remove a pivotal figure at the heart of Iran’s political and security establishment. Photograph: Wael Hamzeh/EPA

Iran’s supreme national security council has confirmed the death of its chief, Ali Larijani, after Israel said it had killed him in an airstrike.

“The pure souls of the martyrs embraced the purified soul of God’s righteous servant, Martyr Dr Ali Larijani,” the council said on Tuesday evening, adding that his son and his bodyguards had died with him.