{"id":13658,"date":"2026-03-03T05:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=13658"},"modified":"2026-03-03T05:07:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:07:00","slug":"who-are-irans-senior-figures-killed-in-us-israeli-attacks-israel-iran-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=13658","title":{"rendered":"Who are Iran\u2019s senior figures killed in US-Israeli attacks? | Israel-Iran conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran\u2019s supreme leader, has been killed along with senior figures in the country\u2019s leadership in strikes on Saturday carried out by the US and Israel.<\/p>\n

Early on Sunday, the Iranian state-run news agency IRNA confirmed 86-year-old Khamenei\u2019s death. The supreme leader\u2019s daughter, son-in-law, and grandson were also killed in the US and Israel\u2019s coordinated attack on Iran.<\/p>\n

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Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n

list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n

Iran\u2019s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Khamenei\u2019s killing is an \u201copen declaration of war against Muslims\u201d, particularly Shia practitioners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tragic event is the greatest trial facing the Islamic world today,\u201d Pezeshkian said in a written message offering condolences over the killing of the supreme leader, who has ruled Iran for over three decades.<\/p>\n

The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) also confirmed the killing of several other senior figures.<\/p>\n

Here are some of them:<\/p>\n

Ali Shamkhani<\/h2>\n

Shamkhani was the secretary of Iran\u2019s Defence Council and a close adviser to Supreme Leader Khamenei.<\/p>\n

The 70-year-old also oversaw the negotiations between the United States and Iran over the Iranian nuclear programme, the latest round of which concluded on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the main issue of the negotiations is not making nuclear weapons by Iran, this is in compliance with a religious decree issued by Iran\u2019s leader and the country\u2019s defence doctrine, and an immediate agreement is within reach,\u201d Shamkhani had said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Shamkhani had also been targeted in an Israeli strike in June 2025, during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel. There were reports that he had been killed in the attack, but he was later confirmed to have survived. He was pulled from the rubble of his home, and had sustained severe injuries back then.<\/p>\n

He had recently been appointed the secretary of Iran\u2019s Defence Council, which was created after the war and coordinated Iran\u2019s defence and national security policies, while mobilising resources to address threats.<\/p>\n

He had also led Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) for a decade until 2023, making him the second-longest-serving security chief since 1979 after former President Hassan Rouhani, who was SNSC secretary for nearly 16 years.<\/p>\n

\"Ali
Ali Shamkhani, the former secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, attends a meeting in Tehran [File: Atta Kenare\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Abdolrahim Mousavi<\/span><\/h2>\n

Mousavi served as the chief of staff of Iran\u2019s armed forces. He had been appointed to this post by Khamenei just days after Israel\u2019s strikes on Iran in June last year.<\/p>\n

He previously served as the commander-in-chief of the Iranian army from 2017 to 2025.<\/p>\n

Mousavi is believed to have been a prominent figure working to develop Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles, drone systems and Western-criticised space launches.<\/p>\n

In March 2023, the US, together with the European Union, United Kingdom, and Australia, sanctioned<\/a> Mousavi for committing serious human rights abuses in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cIranian army personnel under Mousavi\u2019s command reportedly fired machine guns at protesters in November 2019,\u201d a report by the US Department of State said. In November 2019, protests had erupted across Iran after an abrupt decision by authorities to hike petrol prices as part of efforts to blunt the effects of crippling US sanctions on the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

\"TEHRAN,
Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi addresses a crowd during a protest against the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia in Tehran, Iran [File: Fatemeh Bahrami\/Anadolu Agency]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aziz Nasirzadeh<\/h2>\n

Nasirzadeh served as Iran\u2019s minister of defence in Pezeshkian\u2019s government, which came to power after the 2024 elections.<\/p>\n

He was previously the deputy chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces and also served as the commander in the Iranian air force from 2018 to 2021.<\/p>\n

Amid US and Israeli strikes, Nasirzadeh played a key role in ensuring Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure was safeguarded.<\/p>\n

In June 2025, when the US and Israel had threatened to strike Iran, Nasirzadeh warned that Iran would target US military bases in the region if the US attacked it first.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a conflict is imposed on us \u2026 all US bases are within our reach, and we will boldly target them in host countries,\u201d Nasirzadeh had told reporters at the time.<\/p>\n

After the June 2025 attacks, there were also reports that he had been killed, but local journalists later confirmed that he was alive and in good health.<\/p>\n

Nasirzadeh was also critical of Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. According to Iranian media, in October 2024, during Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza and attacks across Southern Lebanon, he warned: \u201cResistance will defeat Israel as it did in 2006.\u201d He was referring to Israel\u2019s 34-day armed conflict with Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah in 2006, when Israel could not completely dismantle Hezbollah\u2019s influence in the region.<\/p>\n

\"Iran's
Iran\u2019s Defence Minister, Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh, looks on during a meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela [File: Marcelo Garcia\/Venezuelan Presidency\/Handout via AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mohammad Pakpour<\/h2>\n

Pakpour served as the commander-in-chief of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from June 2025 until his death.<\/p>\n

Khamenei appointed Pakpour, a veteran commander who started and made his career within the elite force, to the post last year. He had previously led the IRGC\u2019s armoured units and then a combat division during the war with Iraq in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Pakpour led the IRGC ground forces for 16 years before he was appointed commander-in-chief. He was also a deputy for operations at the IRGC and used to lead two major headquarters of the force.<\/p>\n

\"(FILES)
Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour attends a military parade in Tehran [File: AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Who will replace these Iranian officials?<\/h2>\n

A three-person council \u2013 consisting of Iran\u2019s President Pezeshkian, Supreme Court Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei and one of the jurists of the Guardian Council \u2013 will temporarily assume all leadership duties in the country, Iran\u2019s state TV reported.<\/p>\n

\u2060Alireza \u2060Arafi, a religious leader on the Guardian Council, has been appointed to \u2060Iran\u2019s leadership council, the body tasked with fulfilling the \u200csupreme leader\u2019s role until the Assembly of Experts elects a new leader.<\/p>\n

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera\u2019s Maziar Motamedi said the IRGC and security chief Ali Larijani are also expected to play pivotal roles.<\/p>\n

He noted that while the commander-in-chief of the IRGC has been killed, IRGC-linked Telegram channels are citing deputy chief Ahmad Vahidi, who was appointed to the position by Khamenei two months ago, as a likely candidate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran\u2019s supreme leader, has been killed along with senior figures in the country\u2019s leadership in strikes on Saturday carried out by the US and Israel. Early on Sunday, the Iranian state-run news agency IRNA confirmed 86-year-old Khamenei\u2019s death. The supreme leader\u2019s daughter, son-in-law, and grandson were also killed in the US and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explained"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}