Israel takes out Iran's top security official, head of paramilitary group in overnight airstrikes

Ali Larijani

Iran's security chief Ali Larijani was killed in overnight airstrikes, Israel said on Tuesday. The news came hours after Israel killed Gholamreza Soleimani, the leader of the country's Basij paramilitary group.

The Israel Defense forces said in a post on X that Larijani was what remains of the Iranian regime's "effective leader" until he was "eliminated" in the air assault. “Larijani and the Basij commander were eliminated overnight and joined the head of the annihilation programme, Khamenei, and all the eliminated members of the axis of evil, in the depths of hell,” Israel Katz Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense minister said, according to The Telegraph. 

The elimination of Larijani is seen as a pivotal turn in the war nearly three weeks into the joint campaign. The Telegraph reports that military and intel officials believe Larijani had been "calling the shots" ever since the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was taken out on the war's opening day and despite the fact that Mojtaba Khamenei, his 56-year-old son, was installed as Iran's new supreme leader. 

Larijani, who's held various high-level posts within the regime going back to 2008, according to UPI, has been trolling President Trump on X over the last week, posting all manner of messages including vowing Trump would be "sorry" for attacking Iran. According to UPI, he had been staying in a "safehouse" apartment with his son.