Israel claims top Iranian powerbroker killed in Tehran strike

Ali Larijani, last Friday

Ali Larijani, Iran’s national security chief and one of the most powerful figures inside the Islamic Republic, has been killed in overnight air strikes on Tehran, according to Israel Defense Forces.

Israeli officials described the assassination as the most serious blow to Iran’s leadership since the earlier killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the war.

The IDF said it targeted security headquarters in the capital, including facilities linked to Iran’s intelligence ministry and the Basij paramilitary force.

Iranian authorities have not confirmed Larijani’s death. In what appeared to be an attempt to signal he was alive, a handwritten tribute to Iranian “martyrs” was posted to his social media account hours after the strikes.

Israel says regime power centre hit

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said Larijani and Basij commander Gholamreza Soleimani were killed together in the attack.

“They were eliminated overnight,” Katz said, claiming they had joined other senior Iranian figures already killed in the war.

Israeli military officials described Larijani as the “effective leader” of the Iranian regime, arguing he had been directing strategy despite the formal appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader following his father’s death.

Larijani had appeared publicly just days earlier at the annual Quds Day rally alongside president Masoud Pezeshkian, even as Israeli and American bombs struck parts of the capital.

Power vacuum deepens in Tehran

For decades Larijani operated at the centre of Iran’s security establishment, managing alliances, controlling information and overseeing succession planning within the regime.

Officials in Tehran reportedly relied on him to prevent factional infighting after Khamenei’s death and keep the state apparatus functioning under wartime pressure.

Israel claims Larijani also authorised attacks on Israeli and regional targets following the outbreak of the conflict.

If confirmed, his death would remove one of the few figures capable of coordinating Iran’s political and military response — deepening uncertainty at the top of a regime already battered by weeks of US-Israeli strikes.

Iran’s security chief killed in strike, says Israel