Iran's security chief has been killed, claims Israel

Ali Larijani, Iran’s influential security chief, has been killed in an air strike, Israel claimed on Tuesday.

Iran has not confirmed the death. However, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said Larijani had been "eliminated" in overnight strikes, and that the country’s military would "continue hunting down" Iran’s leadership. Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of the Basij paramilitary unit affiliated with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was also killed, according to Israel.

Larijani was last seen in public at the Quds Day march in Tehran last Friday, according to the BBC. A handwritten note was posted on his X account earlier on Tuesday morning, although the message - which praises the "warriors" of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy - did not have the time or date on it.

A regime veteran, Larijani was named secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council in August by president Masoud Pezeshkian and representative of the then supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to the council.

He has also been described locally as an advisor to the late Khamenei, and was speaker of Iran’s parliament for 12 years until 2020.

He is widely seen as one of the key civilian figures who has been leading Iran since the death of Khamenei at the start of the war, the Financial Times noted.