Iran confirmed death

Tehran (dpa) — Iran has confirmed the death of Ali Larijani, hours after Israel said it killed the Iranian security chief in an airstrike in Tehran.

The Fars news agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), said on Tuesday that the secretary general of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran had become a “martyr.”

The office of Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Larijani died in a targeted attack overnight.

A post on Larijani’s former X account stated: “A servant of God has gone to his Lord as a martyr.”

Larijani was appointed to the post in August 2025 after previously serving as a close adviser to supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike on February 28, the opening day of the war.

Larijani’s rise to the senior security job had surprised some observers, as he had built a reputation inside and outside Iran as the pragmatic face of the Iranian establishment.

Iran confirmed death

He had presidential ambitions but was barred from running in the 2024 election by the Guardian Council, which vets all legislation and candidates for elected offices.

Tehran confirms Basij commander killed

Tehran also on Tuesday confirmed the death of the commander of its Basij forces, Brigadier General Gholamreza Soleimani.

The Fars news agency published an obituary in which the Revolutionary Guards paid tribute to Soleimani and congratulated him on his “honourable martyrdom.”

The IRGC – Iran’s elite military force – said the “Basij fighters” would never stop seeking revenge for their slain leader.

The Israeli military announced earlier that it had killed Soleimani in a strike in Tehran on Monday.

It said the Basij forces under Soleimani were responsible for the violent suppression of mass anti-government protests in Iran in January.

The killing of Soleimani has inflicted lasting damage on the militia’s capabilities, the statement added.

Iran confirmed death

The Basij-e Mostazafin, or “Mobilization of the Oppressed,” is a paramilitary force that was established after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The militia, which recruits largely from younger segments of society, plays a key role in suppressing dissent and is part of the IRGC.

The Israeli military said late on Tuesday that its air force was continuing to target members of the elite paramilitary units operating at more than 10 different locations in the Iranian capital.

The army did not initially provide any details regarding possible casualties, but threatened further attacks.

Consequences of Larijani’s death unclear

The political and military consequences of Larijani’s death, if confirmed, are unclear.

Larijani, 67, studied mathematics and was a long-time figure in Iranian politics, including serving as a nuclear negotiator in talks with Washington. In recent years, as tensions with Western powers escalated, he had expressed more moderate views.

Like many senior Iranian officials, he began his career in the IRGC, rising to the rank of brigadier general before leaving active service in the early 1990s.

Iran confirmed death

Exile media outlet IranWire reported that he played a key role in the suppression of recent mass protests, in which thousands of demonstrators were killed in early January. The United States had imposed sanctions on Larijani over his role in the crackdown.

According to Hamidreza Azizi, Iran expert and visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Larijani’s death would not paralyse Iran’s decision-making structures, “as the system is designed to absorb such losses.”

However, it could “gradually narrow the circle of experienced political managers and shift influence further toward more military-oriented actors,” Azizi wrote on X.

Simon Wolfgang Fuchs, professor of Islamic Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said Larijani’s death would likely make it more difficult for the US to find a negotiated solution for a possible end to the war. This, he said, would be in Israel’s interests.

Iran meanwhile continued its attacks in the region, targeting sites in Israel, Kuwait, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, while Tehran faced renewed heavy bombing.