Israel kills 2 senior Iran leaders as allies reject Trump’s call for Strait of Hormuz help

The Israeli military said in a statement Tuesday that the commander of Iran’s feared Basij paramilitary force was among senior leaders killed in overnight strikes in Tehran, and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz later confirmed that Ali Larijanithe head of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, was also “eliminated”.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have called on the IDF to continue to lead the terrorist and oppressive regime in Iran,” Katz said in a statement, adding that Israel would inform President Trump of the assassinations of the two senior Iranian officials “when morning breaks in Washington.”

“The Israeli Air Force, acting on IDF intelligence, targeted and eliminated Gholamreza Soleimani, who operated as commander of the Basij unit for the past six years,” the Israeli military said in an earlier statement, accusing the Basij, under Soleimani’s command, of carrying out “the main crackdown operations, using severe violence, widespread arrests and the use of force against civilian protesters” to quell anti-government protests that swept Iran in January.

The Israeli military called Soleimani’s assassination “an additional significant blow to the regime’s security command and control structures” and vowed to “continue to operate with determination against the commanders of the Iranian terrorist regime.”

Until Monday, Larijani was among the highest-ranking regime leaders still alive in Iran. He has been defiant since the start of the war and warned only a week ago, in a message to Mr. Trump, that the Iranian people “do not fear your empty threats; even those greater than you have not been able to erase them… so beware that you are not the one who disappears.”

Netanyahu’s office, meanwhile, posted a photo on social media of the Israeli leader on the phone, with a message saying only: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders the elimination of senior Iranian regime officials.”