(FILES) Iran's security chief Ali Larijani attends a ceremony by the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah marking the first anniversary of Israel's assassination of their longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, in Beirut's southern suburbs on September 27, 2025. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Iran’s powerful national security chief Ali Larijani was “eliminated last night”, along with the commander of Tehran’s Basij paramilitary force. Katz said that he had been informed by Israel’s military chief that Larijani and the head of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force, Gholamreza Soleimani, “were eliminated last night”. They were met with a crackdown in which, according to rights groups, thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands arrested. Israel’s military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said “significant preventive achievements were recorded overnight” in a statement released earlier by the military.

Source: Punch March 17, 2026 22:21 UTC