TEHRAN: Iranian Intelligence Minister Ismail Khatib was killed in a precise Israeli airstrike targeting the Revolutionary Guards’ command center in Tehran, sending shockwaves across the nation.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed the assassination, condemning it as a “cowardly attack” that has left the country reeling in grief.
This strike marks the third high-ranking Iranian official to be eliminated within two days, following the deaths of National Security Advisor Ali Larijani and Basij commander Gholamreza Soleimani, underscoring a dramatic escalation in targeted operations against Iran’s leadership.
According to Al Jazeera, Israeli military analysts viewed Khatib as a trusted confidant of Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, while Israeli sources revealed that intelligence collected over the past 24 hours enabled the confirmation of the deaths of three senior Iranian officials.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that he, together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had granted the military standing authority to target additional senior Iranian officials without seeking case-by-case approval.
Al Jazeera highlighted Khatib’s prominence in Iran, noting that he graduated from the influential Qom seminary and studied under the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, effectively “ticking every box” for senior leadership qualifications.
