Iran’s supreme national security council has confirmed the death of its chief, Ali Larijani, after Israel said it had killed him in an airstrike. Larijani is the most senior Iranian figure to die in the war since the supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the conflict.
“The pure souls of the martyrs embraced the purified soul of God’s righteous servant, Martyr Dr Ali Larijani,” the council said on Tuesday evening, adding that his son and his bodyguards had died with him. Iran’s army chief Amir Hatami threatened to launch a “decisive and regrettable” retaliation for the killing.
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said a separate strike had killed the Basij paramilitary force commander, Gholamreza Soleimani, along with other senior Basij figures. Soleimani’s death was later confirmed by Iranian state media. Katz stated: “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.”
Donald Trump also hailed Larijani’s reported death, referring to his supposed role in spearheading the recent crushing of mass protests. “Their leaders are gone,” Trump said of Iran’s clerical regime. “It’s an evil group. I mean, they’ve killed much more than 32,000 people. And the man who was responsible for that was also killed yesterday.”
The twin deaths show Israel still retains intelligence on the movements of Iran’s top leaders inside Tehran, and can use it and the US’s near complete control of Iranian airspace to strike at will. Larijani had been seen days earlier on the crowded streets of Tehran during the annual Quds day rally. He was appointed secretary of the supreme national security council in August after previous US-Israeli attacks on Iran in June 2025.
The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said: “The political assassinations perpetrated by Israel, including those of Iranian statesmen and politicians, constitute illegal acts contrary to the laws of war.” The US-Israeli war on Iran is in its third week, with at least 2,000 people killed and no end in sight. The strait of Hormuz remains largely closed off and US allies have rebuffed calls from Donald Trump for them to help to reopen the vital waterway.
