Overview
- Defense Minister Israel Katz and the IDF said Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Basij commander Gholamreza Soleimani were eliminated in strikes on Tehran.
- Iranian authorities offered no confirmation, and a handwritten note attributed to Larijani was posted on his X account commemorating Iranian sailors killed in a recent attack.
- The Israeli military described the attacks as a new wave against “Iranian regime infrastructure” in Tehran, with additional strikes reported in Hezbollah areas of Beirut.
- Larijani, a former nuclear negotiator and close ally of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had appeared publicly four days earlier; the United States recently offered rewards of up to $10 million for information on senior Iranian figures including him.
- The clashes form part of a wider US–Israeli campaign launched after Khamenei’s Feb. 28 killing, as regional spillover continues with a drone strike and missile debris causing fires and a death in the UAE, a drone attack on the US embassy in Baghdad, and oil prices rising around 5% with the Strait of Hormuz largely closed.