Israel Kills Iran IRGC Intelligence Chief in Tehran
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- Seyed Majid Khademi, head of intelligence for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Tehran overnight Monday, with Iran's state broadcaster confirming his death
- Israel Katz, Israel's defense minister, described Khademi as one of the top three leaders of the Revolutionary Guards
- Israel has killed numerous top Iranian officials since the start of the war, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader, and Ali Larijani, head of the Supreme National Security Council who the Times reports had been 'effectively running' Iran
- Esmaeil Khatib, Iran's intelligence minister, was killed in a mid-March airstrike — the strike that preceded Khademi's death in the intelligence portfolio
- Khademi held his post for only a few months, part of a pattern in which Israel has systematically targeted Iran's senior military, intelligence, political, and nuclear leadership
- A NYT graphic maps the entire Iranian command structure as killed or replaced — from Khamenei and Larijani down to the heads of the Basij paramilitary force and the advanced weapons program, as well as the grandson of the Islamic Republic's founder, Hassan Khomeini
Why it matters: Israel has killed or forced the replacement of virtually the entire Iranian senior leadership — supreme leader, national security chief, intelligence minister, military commanders, and a key nuclear-program figure — meaning decisions that once rested with a stable cadre are now made by officials who may hold their posts for weeks, materially degrading Iran's capacity for coherent strategic response.
