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If the dying of Esmaeil Khatib is confirmed, it might be the third main high-profile assassination of Iranian leaders in successive days.
Printed On 18 Mar 2026
Defence Minister Israel Katz says Israel has killed Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmaeil Khatib. Tehran has not commented on or confirmed the assault.
If the declare introduced on Wednesday is confirmed, it might be the third assassination of high-ranking Iranian leaders in two days.
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Iranian safety chief Ali Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij paramilitary drive, had been killed in Israeli air strikes on Tuesday. Iran will maintain funerals on Wednesday for each males.
The nation’s international minister insisted that Larijani’s killing won’t deal a deadly blow to Iran’s management.
In an interview with Al Jazeera aired after the killing of Larijani was confirmed by Tehran on Tuesday, International Minister Abbas Araghchi mentioned the USA and Israel had but to understand that Iran’s authorities doesn’t depend on a single particular person.
Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from the occupied West Financial institution, mentioned Israeli army analysts regarded Khatib as having been a trusted determine near Iran’s new supreme chief, Mojtaba Khamenei.
“In response to Israeli sources, they mentioned they’ve been gathering intelligence that allowed them previously 24 hours to declare the deaths of three senior Iranian officers,” Ibrahim mentioned.
Katz additionally introduced that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given the Israeli army standing authorisation to eradicate different senior Iranian officers of their sights with out case-by-case approval.
“That is seen as one other success from the Israeli perspective in concentrating on the Iranian management,” she mentioned.
On Tuesday, Iran confirmed the deaths of Larijani, the highly effective secretary of the Supreme Nationwide Safety Council, and Soleimani, commander of the Basij, the inner paramilitary drive of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Larijani had been one in every of Iran’s most influential political operators, having beforehand led its nuclear negotiations with the West and serving as speaker of parliament.
Focused killings are a method Israel has pursued towards its adversaries for years.
Quite a few Hamas leaders inside and out of doors of Gaza have been assassinated, following a sample of assassinations of Palestinian leaders stretching again many years.
Longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and former Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed Rahawi in Yemen have been killed, and Israeli officers have signalled that such strikes will proceed.
Since launching their conflict on Iran on February 28, Israel and the USA have systematically eliminated a lot of Iran’s high tier of army and political leaders, together with Supreme Chief Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the opening day of the conflict together with a number of of his members of the family.
