Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons, Mahmood Hosseini
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on 17 March that Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. He was the de facto leader of Iran.
According to Channel 12, an operation to kill Larijani was planned for the night of Sunday to Monday, but the strike was postponed at the last minute. On Monday afternoon, information emerged that Larijani was due to arrive at one of his apartments, where he had been hiding. It is reported that he was there with his son.
Immediately after the strike, a source within the security service told the broadcaster, “There was no chance that he survived this attack.”
Larijani is the man who just recently threatened President Trump with a thinly veiled threat. “The sacrificial nation of Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats,” security chief Ali Larijani wrote in a defiant post on X on Tuesday in response to Mr. Trump’s Truth Social post. “Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself.”
President Trump has already shown he is willing to give his life for his country.
The Basij commander is also dead.
The IDF also reported that Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of the Basij volunteer paramilitary formation, was killed in a “precision strike” in Tehran.
Ali Larijani was a right-hand man of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and was considered one of the regime’s leading figures after Khamenei’s death, the Times of Israel notes.
THIS IS HUGE
Israel just killed Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of the Basij.
That’s the main Iranian regime agency responsible for domestic repression.
Israel is giving the Iranian people a chance to set themselves free. pic.twitter.com/BKa168DaUA
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) March 17, 2026