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Israel’s missile strikes have decimated the upper echelons of the Iranian security forces, killing at least 17 senior figures. That includes the top three generals on the Armed Forces General Staff, the leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and the country’s intelligence chiefs.
Israel has also killed at least 10 leading Iranian scientists allegedly involved in the country’s nuclear programme, some of whom were under western sanctions. Here are the key figures who have been killed since the conflict began.
Armed Forces General Staff
Mohammad Bagheri
Bagheri was Iran’s most senior military leader, serving as commander of the armed forces general staff from 2016. After taking part in the 1979 US embassy seizure as a student, he had a long career in military intelligence before his promotion by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The US imposed sanctions on him in 2019 as one of the “unelected officials who surround Iran’s supreme leader”.
Gholamreza Mehrabi
A shadowy figure with little public profile, Mehrabi was the general staff’s deputy commander for intelligence.
Mehdi Rabbani
Rabbani served as deputy commander of the general staff for operations. A veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, he held senior positions in the IRGC across the country. Before joining the general staff, he was deputy commander of the IRGC for operations.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Major General Hossein Salami
Commander-in-chief of the IRGC, Iran’s primary military force, since 2019. He regularly deployed fierce rhetoric against Israel and the US, saying last month Iran would “open the gates of hell” if attacked. Sanctioned by the UN in 2006 and US in 2007 for involvement in Iran’s nuclear programme.
Major General Amir Ali Hajizadeh
Head of IRGC aerospace forces, overseeing Iran’s ballistic missile programme and credited by Israeli officials with stepping up its drone programme. Sanctioned by the EU in 2012 and in 2019 by the US, which accused him of being responsible for shooting down a US drone.
Major General Gholamali Rashid
Head of Khatam Al-Anbia Central Command Headquarters from 2016, tasked with planning and coordinating joint military operations among Iran’s armed forces. Spent 17 years as deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Sanctioned by the US as a member of Khamenei’s “inner circle” in 2019 and by the EU in 2024.
Major General Ali Shadmani (not confirmed by Iran)
Replaced Rashid as head of Khatam Al-Anbia Central Command Headquarters. Previously deputy head, he was sanctioned by the EU in 2024 for involvement in Iran’s missile and drone programmes. Israel said he had been killed but that has not been confirmed by Tehran.
Senior aerospace generals killed alongside Hajizadeh:
Mahmoud Bagheri, Mohammad Bagher Taherpour, Mansour Safarpour, Morteza Tayeb Masoud, Khosro Hasani, Javad Jorsara, Mohammad Aghajafari, and Davoud Sheikhian.
Intelligence officers
Mohammad Kazemi
Head of the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization from 2022. Sanctioned that year by the US, which alleged in 2023 he was involved in wrongful detentions of US citizens and oversaw “operations suppressing civil society in Iran” and a “brutal crackdown on protests”.
Hassan Mohaghegh
Deputy head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization. Sanctioned in 2023 by the US, which said he was a liaison between senior IRGC officials and intelligence officials on counter-espionage operations in Syria.
Nuclear scientists
Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi
Theoretical physicist and president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran, and a professor at Shahid Beheshti University’s Laser and Plasma Research Institute.
Fereydoon Abbasi
Nuclear physicist and laser specialist; former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and former member of parliament. Injured in a failed Israeli assassination attempt in 2010. Sanctioned by the UN in 2007 and the US in 2012.
Amir Hossein Feqhi
Former deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran; head of a nuclear research centre affiliated with Iran’s atomic organisation, and a professor at Shahid Beheshti University.
Akbar Motalebizadeh
Supervised projects for the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), whose personnel the US has accused of playing a “central role in the Iranian regime’s past nuclear weapons effort”. The US sanctioned him in 2019, saying he had been an adviser to the head of the SPND.
Ali Bakouei
Served as Iran’s scientific representative in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Former head of the physics department at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran.
Ahmadreza Zolfaghari Daryani
Professor of Nuclear Physics and former Dean of the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences at Shahid Beheshti University
Abdolhamid Minouchehr
Head of the nuclear engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University. A specialist in reactors, he carried out extensive research on increasing the efficiency of nuclear power plants.
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