🇮🇷🇮🇱 Middle East – In a devastating escalation, Israeli airstrikes early Friday struck multiple military and nuclear-linked sites across Iran, killing senior leadership figures in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to Iranian and Israeli sources.
Among the dead is IRGC Commander Major General Hossein Salami, confirmed by Iranian news agencies Tasnim and Mehr, who reported that Salami was “martyred” in a strike on the IRGC command headquarters. Also killed was General Gholam Ali Rashid, along with top nuclear scientists Mohammad Mahdi Tehranchi and Fereydoon Abbasi, according to state TV and semi-official sources.
An Israeli security official told The New York Times that five waves of strikes were conducted. Another Israeli official told Reuters that Iranian Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri is also “likely dead,” though confirmation is pending.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a statement confirming he is unharmed and being briefed regularly. He warned, “With this crime, the Zionist regime has drawn for itself a bitter and painful fate — and it will surely face it.”
The IRGC released a statement mourning Salami and vowing “humiliating and harsh revenge” for the attack. Reports suggest Ali Shamkhani, senior advisor to Khamenei, was critically wounded in the strike.
The attacks reportedly targeted at least three military sites in East Azerbaijan Province, with significant damage reported.
This marks a turning point in Israeli-Iranian hostilities, and could ignite a wider regional war depending on Iran’s retaliation in the coming hours.
