Defense Minister and Commander of the Revolutionary Guard killed in the attack on Tehran

Iranian Defense Minister Amir Nasirzadeh and the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Pakpour, were killed in Israeli attacks, according to two sources familiar with Israel’s military operations and a regional source.

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, general Mohammad Pakpourand the Iranian Defense Minister, Amir Nasirzadehwere killed in Israeli attacks in Iran this morning, three sources familiar with the matter told.

Previously, Israeli authorities had said that Pakpour, Nasirzadeh and also the head of intelligence services of Iran would have “most likely been killed” in the attacks.

Several senior commanders of the Iranian regime and armed forces were targeted in the , including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the President Masoud Pezeshkiannote or .

In a published in X, the Israeli army stated that the attacks were carried out simultaneouslyearly in the morning, in various locations in Tehran, targeting meetings of high-ranking figures in the Iranian political and security apparatus.

⭕️The IDF completed a broad strike on strategic defense systems of the Iranian regime.

The IDF struck multiple strategic aerial defense systems, including an advanced SA-65 system in the Kermanshah area of western Iran.

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF)

The statement states that the Assessment of the results of the attack is ongoingadding that Israel is equally prepared for the possibility of the current campaign spreading.

According to an Israeli journalist quoted by the Times of Israel, Ali ShamkhaniKhamenei’s advisor and former Defense Minister, was also among those targeted.

“In our first attack, we hit prominent targets — individuals involved in plans to destroy Israel,” an Israeli security source told the newspaper, on condition of anonymity.

This information contradict the previous announcement by the Iranian authoritiesaccording to which “all the leaders were alive“, including his supreme guide. “The ‘ayatollah’ Khamenei still alive, as far as I know.”said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araghchi.

“All senior officials are alive. Therefore, everyone is now at their posts and we are managing the situation”, added Araghchi, quoted by AFP.

What is the Revolutionary Guard

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the EU classified in January as ““, is a powerful paramilitary force who answers only to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and who has become an unavoidable entity within the country’s theocracy.

The Iranian militia, which controls the country’s ballistic missile arsenal and has been linked to attacks abroad, emerged from the 1979 Islamic Revolution as a force overseen by Shiite clerics aimed at protect the country’s governmentand later enshrined in its constitution.

Opera in parallel with the armed forces regulars of the Iranian regime, and its prominence and power grew up during the long and ruinous war with Iraq in the 1980s.

Although he faced possible dissolution after the war, Khamenei would eventually grant him powers to expand to the private sectorwhich allowed the force to prosper, recalls The Independent.

The Guard now manages a huge construction companycalled Khatam al-Anbia, and has companies that build roads, manage portsoperate telecommunications networks and even theoffer laser eye surgery.

A Force Qudsan expeditionary unit of the Guard, was instrumental in creating what Iran describes as its “Axis of Resistance” against Israel and the U.S. Supported former Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and other groups in the region, gaining power in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.