Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Ali Larijani, Iran's secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and overseer of the Basij militia, was killed overnight in a targeted strike alongside Basij commander Gholamreza Soleimani. The announcement came hours after the IDF confirmed Soleimani's death in central Tehran, with Larijani's reported killing marking another blow to Tehran's hardline enforcers amid escalating US-Israeli operations against the regime.
For context, this follows a brutal war that erupted last month when US and Israeli forces struck Iran's leadership, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28. Massive anti-regime protests then swept Iranian cities, with crowds chanting against the 'axis of evil' and US influence. Larijani, a veteran operator who reclaimed his security post last August, had been vocal in insisting that the million-strong rallies were genuine and not staged.
