Israeli ‘decapitation strikes' wipe out top military command

Telegraph

17 hours ago

Israel has launched a series of stunning strikes against Iran, aiming to cripple Tehran's nuclear programme and its military leadership.
The IDF said about 200 jets were involved in striking around 100 targets on Friday morning, which appeared to include senior members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and top nuclear scientists.
Those killed included Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the powerful IRGC, and Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, according to reports.
The attacks are reminiscent of Israeli strikes on Lebanon last year, which decapitated the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group.
Hassan Nasrallah, the former leader of Hezbollah, was among those assassinated by Israeli bombs in a precision strike on the group's Beirut headquarters last September.
Israel appears to be using similar tactics in an attempt to wipe out Iran's senior military leadership. Here is what we know about who the IDF killed overnight.
Mohammad Bagheri – chief of staff of Iran's armed forces
General Mohammad Bagheri served as the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, the highest-ranking officer in the country's military, since 2016 until his death on Friday.
He was responsible for the coordination and supervision of Iran's regular army and the IRGC, which answers only to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and supports Iranian militant groups, and his death is likely to throw the leadership of the IRGC into disarray.
Bagheri was also a member of the IRGC Command Network, which according to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) 'dominates the upper echelons of Iran's military and controls planning, operations, intelligence, covert and irregular warfare operations, and internal security'.
Born in 1960 in Tehran, he studied engineering and earned a doctoral degree in political geography. He was involved in attacks during the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979, when 52 Americans were taken hostage.
He joined the IRGC in 1980 as an intelligence official and claimed to play a major role in all operations of the Iran-Iraq War between 1980 and 1988.
In February 2022, he announced that Iran was advancing its ballistic missile programme, and in October that year, the White House reported that he was overseeing Iranian army branches supplying Russia with Iranian-made drones.
This prompted the UK to sanction Bagheri that same year. The US followed suit, sanctioning him over the brutal suppression of protests that broke out in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini.
Hossein Salami – commander-in-chief of IRGC
General Hossein Salami joined the IRGC at its inception in 1979 and rose up through the ranks, serving as commander of the guard's Air Force and its deputy commander-in-chief before his promotion to the top position in 2019.
'Without a doubt, Major General Salami was one of the most distinguished commanders of the Islamic Revolution — present on all fronts of scientific, cultural, security, and military jihad,' the IRGC said in a statement, highlighting the significance of his death in Israeli strikes on Friday.
He was born in 1960 in Isfahan province, one of the targets of Israel's latest raids. He served in various positions during the Iraq-Iran war, including ground force operations and intelligence gathering.
While serving as the deputy chief, General Salami became known for his rhetorical warfare against the US, and his promotion to commander-in-chief came only weeks after the US designated the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.
The appointment also followed US president Donald Trump's decision during his first term to withdraw the US from the international nuclear deal with Iran and restore crippling sanctions.
As leader of the IRGC, he increased his threats against the US, vowing to 'take harsh revenge' against the country after the Trump-ordered assassination of Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani in 2020.
Five days later, Iran launched ballistic missiles at two bases in Iraq housing American troops, causing injuries but no fatalities among soldiers there.
After Soleimani was killed, Salami said that the US and Israel should know that 'if they threaten our commanders, none of their commanders will find a safe place ' to live.
In a 2016 speech, he said there was 'fertile ground' for the 'annihilation, the wiping out, and the collapse of the Zionist regime'.
When an Israeli strike in April 2024 killed seven guard members, including two Iranian generals at an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria, Salami vowed to retaliate.
Weeks later, Salami ordered an operation that launched more than 300 drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles against Israel in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East closer to a region-wide war.
Ali Shamkhani – top adviser to Khomeini
Known as one of Iran's leading strategists, Shamkhani served as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and a key adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader.
He was an important interlocutor with Arab countries, and some Western officials saw him as a preferred mediator in discussions with Iran, making his death a significant blow to potential diplomatic efforts.
He was born in 1955 in Ahvaz, a city in western Iran, and studied engineering at university.
While a student, he was a member of an underground organisation called Mansouroun, which was fighting against Iran's royal dynasty of the day.
Shamkhani worked his way up serving in various positions in the IRGC, as well as cabinet minister for the revolutionary guards in the 1980s and for defence from the late 1990s to early 2000s.
After the death of Soleimani in 2020, Shamkhani said Iran's response would be a 'historic nightmare' for the US. 'Even if the weakest of these scenarios gains a consensus, the implementation of it can be a historic nightmare for the Americans... The entirety of the resistance forces will retaliate,' he said.
In 2023, however, he resigned as the country's top security official over his close ties to a British spy, the New York Times reported at the time. Iran international reported that his resignation was due to his involvement in a government circle linked to a cartel engaged in kidnapping and drug trafficking in collaboration with the IRGC.
He was reported to have been injured in Israel's latest strikes, and to have died hours later in hospital.
Gholam Ali Rashid – senior commander of IRGC
Less was known about General Gholam Alo Rashid.
Born in 1953 in Khuzestan, he joined the IRGC at the start of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980. He became one of the key decision-makers during the war and was eventually promoted to deputy chief-of-staff of the Iranian armed forces.
Like Bagheri, he was also a member of the IRGC's Command Network and had previously declared that any military action taken by the US against Iran would be a strategic mistake.
At the time of his death, he was serving as the commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, a combatant command that coordinates joint military operations.
Nuclear scientists
Six nuclear scientists were killed in Israel's strikes, according to Iranian state media, in a blow to Iran's nuclear programme.
Nuclear scientist Fereydoun Abbasi and theoretical physicist Dr Mohammed Mehdi Tehranchi had already been named among the dead by Mehr News.
Abbasi was a professor of nuclear physics, reported to be a member of the IRGC, who was regularly linked to Iran's nuclear weapons programme.
He is reported to have personally directed work to calculate the yield of a nuclear weapon.
Less is known about Mehdi, a professor of physics. He was a theoretical physicist and president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran.