Iran’s de facto leader, Ali Larijani, has been eliminated in a strike, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in press briefing on Tuesday morning.
The senior-most Iranian leader, who recently threatened to assassinate President Donald Trump, was hiding in a Tehran safe house when the Israeli fighter jets struck, Israeli media reports suggest.
The news of Larijani’s elimination was met with public celebrations in Tehran, clips posted on social media show.
Ahead of the announcement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a picture showing him “ordering the elimination of senior Iranian regime officials..”
Israeli Defense Minister “confirms Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani eliminated in overnight strike,” Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported.
The broadcaster continued:
Ali Larijani served as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, a role he was appointed to in August 2025 by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.He also acted as the representative of former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the council and has been described in Iranian media as an adviser to Khamenei.
With Iran’s new ‘Supreme Leader,’ Mojtaba Khamenei, failing to show up, Larijan was the one calling the shots in Tehran. For years, Larijani served as a senior aide to Khamenei and was widely regarded as his successor.
Mojtaba’s disappearance raises doubts about his whereabouts, with reports suggesting he was either severely wounded or killed in the Israeli airstrike that eliminated his father two weeks ago. Larijani’s killing creates the biggest leadership crisis in regime’s 47-year history.
The news comes exactly a week after Larijan, who also heads Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, boasted that he was not “afraid” of President Trump and threatened him with “elimination.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in a press statement, revealed the details of the operation that killed top regime leader:
The IDF announces that yesterday, March 17, 2026, the Israeli Air Force, acting on IDF intelligence, and through the integration of unique operational capabilities, conducted a precise strike that eliminated Ali Larijani, the Secretary of Iranian Supreme National Security Council, who operated as the de facto leader of the Iranian terror regime. The strike was conducted while he was located near Tehran.
The Israeli Air Force also eliminated the chief and almost the entire top brass of Basij forces. The Islamic Guard’s Basij forces are charged with suppressing domestic opposition and have been responsible for massacreing tens of thousands of protesters to quell the ongoing uprising.
“The IDF confirms killing Basij paramilitary force commander Gholamreza Soleimani in a strike in Iran overnight,” The Times of Israel reported. “In addition, the strike also killed the deputy commander of the Basij and other top officials in the paramilitary force, the IDF says.”
In a major breakthrough against Palestinian terrorism, the IDF targeted, and likely eliminated, Akram al-Ajouri, the second-in-command of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization in Tehran. The Iranian-backed Islamist group operates in Gaza and the West Bank.
The newspaper Israel Hayom reported:
An additional target was Akram al-Ajouri, a senior figure in the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the al-Quds Brigades. Al-Ajouri, a Gaza-born operative who had been living in Syria in recent years, was considered a key figure in coordinating between Iran, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and was involved in rocket fire toward Gaza border communities. According to assessments, he was killed in a strike carried out on Wednesday in Tehran.
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