DUBAI: Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday (Mar 17) that Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani and the head of its paramilitary Basij force had been killed.
“I have just been updated by the chief of staff that Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and the head of the Basij – Iran’s central repression apparatus – (Soleimani), were eliminated last night,” Katz said in a statement released by his ministry.
Larijani was one of the targets of strikes carried out by the Israeli military last night across Iran, Israeli officials told Reuters earlier.
Iran has not yet commented on the report.
If his death is confirmed, he would be the most senior Iranian official to be killed after the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who died on the first day of the war.
Larijani, a former nuclear negotiator and a close ally of Khamenei, was seen in Tehran on Friday taking part in Quds Day rallies.
Later that day, the United States offered a reward of up to US$10 million for information on senior Iranian military and intelligence officials, including Larijani, as part of a list of 10 figures linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Israel’s military said earlier on Tuesday it had killed the head of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force in a “precise strike in Tehran”.
The Basij, a volunteer force under Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, “led the main repression operations” by the authorities during recent mass protests in Iran, the Israeli army said.