Mohammad Bagheri: Iran's Armed Forces chief martyred in Israel attack

TEHRAN: Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, was martyred in Israel attack, confirmed Iranian media.

According to Mehr News Agency, Major General Mohammad Bagheri was martyred in overnight attacks by Israeli jets.

Meanwhile, Ameer Habibullah has been appointed new chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces.

Israeli airstrikes on Tehran and other Iranian cities early reportedly assassinated several top Iranian military and nuclear figures, including the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to Iranian state-affiliated media.

Tasnim news agency reported that Major General Hossein Salami, the chief commander of the IRGC, was killed in an overnight strike on the Iranian capital.

Read more: IRGC Chief Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, others assassinated in Israeli strikes

Salami, a central figure in Iran’s security establishment and a longtime architect of its regional military strategy, was reportedly at a military facility in Tehran at the time of the attack.

Among others reported killed were Major General Gholamali Rashid, commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Headquarters, and two prominent nuclear scientists — Fereydoun Abbasi, a former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and Mohammad-Mehdi Tehranchi, president of the Islamic Azad University.

The strikes are being linked to a broader Israeli military operation that targeted multiple military and nuclear sites across Iran, including facilities in Natanz and Isfahan.