Israel's claim that Ali Larijani was killed in an overnight strike in Tehran moved to the centre of the Iran conflict on Tuesday after Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Iranian security chief had been killed alongside Basij commander Gholamreza Soleimani, even though there was still no public confirmation from Tehran later in the day.
The news followed an Israeli military statement saying it had carried out a targeted strike in central Tehran against Soleimani, the commander of the Basij, a paramilitary force long associated with crushing dissent inside Iran. Katz then went further, declaring that Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, had also been eliminated in the same wave of attacks.
