Israel kills Iran's Basij commander Soleimani in Tehran
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- Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of Iran's Basij internal security militia, was killed in an Israeli "targeted strike yesterday in the heart of Tehran," the Israeli military said, with the IRGC confirming his death on Tuesday.
- Iran's IRGC confirmed Soleimani's death in a statement shared by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, calling it an "attack by the American-Zionist enemy" without providing further detail.
- Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was also killed in a separate Israeli strike on Tuesday, per Iranian state media.
- Soleimani is one of several Iranian officials killed in the war since the US and Israel assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the conflict on February 28.
- The Basij is a volunteer paramilitary force under the IRGC, founded after the 1979 revolution and tasked with enforcing internal security, including being deployed against the January antigovernment protests in which thousands were reportedly killed.
- Soleimani (born 1965) had been sanctioned by the US, EU, and other countries for his alleged role in suppressing dissent through the Basij.
- The Basij and other internal security forces have been frequent targets of US and Israeli attacks during the war, per the source.
Why it matters: The targeted killing of Soleimani — sanctioned for crushing dissent — alongside Larijani, Iran's top national security official, eliminates the command structure of Iran's protest-suppression apparatus and Supreme National Security Council in a single day during an active war.
