Top Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists, civilians assassinated in Israeli strikes

TEHRAN: Top Iranian military commanders, several nuclear scientists, and civilians were assassinated in Israeli strikes in Iran’s capital, Tehran, and other cities overnight on Friday, state media IRNA reported.

As per details, Chiefs of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Bagheri and Chief Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami, among other military officials, were killed.

The Israeli military said it carried out several waves of airstrikes targeting nuclear facilities and military sites, including its long-range missile capabilities across Iran, on Friday night.

Tasnim news agency reported that around six nuclear scientists were assassinated, identified as Abdulhamid Minouchehr, Ahmadreza Zolfaghari, Seyyed Amirhossein Faqhi, and Motablizadeh.

Mohammad-Mehdi Tehranchi, a nuclear scientist and president of the Islamic Azad University, and Fereydoun Abbasi, also a nuclear scientist and former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, were also killed in separate strikes.

“With this action, the Zionist regime showed that its real goal is science and technology, and it has come to war against our scientists using the tool of terror,” the semi-official Iranian news agency said.

Iranian media reported that residential buildings were also targeted in Tehran. Eyewitnesses and reporters from the state TV said they saw the bodies of women and children among the victims.

In a statement following the attacks, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Israel to prepare for a “bitter and painful fate”.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Tehran has a “legal and legitimate” right to respond, as it vowed to involve the US, as Israel’s strikes could not have taken place without its “coordination and authorisation”.