FLASH
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The Iranian leadership pyramid was almost completely destroyed after the Israeli attack.
Iranian state media said Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, was among the dead. Officials said a top nuclear negotiator was also killed.
"Abdolhamid Minousher, Ahmadreza Zolfaghari, Amirhossein Fehi, Motaleblizadeh, Mohammad Mehdi Tehranji and Fereydoun Abbasi were the nuclear scientists who were martyred in the Israeli attack," the Iranian Tasnim news agency reported.
The commander of Iran's IRGC air force, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, was also killed in an Israeli air strike in Iran overnight, the IDF said. According to the military, he was killed along with senior IRGC air force officers as they gathered in an underground command center to prepare an attack on Israel.
The command center was hit by fighter jets, according to the IDF.
According to the military, among the senior officials killed were the commanders of the IRGC's drone unit and air defense unit. The IRGC's air force was responsible for Iran's ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel in April and October last year.
The IDF says officials also directed the 2019 drone attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.
"Hajjad has publicly pledged to support the idea of destroying Israel on numerous occasions in recent years and has played a central role in shaping the plan to destroy Israel," the army added.
In addition, Iranian media reported that 8 people were killed in an Israeli attack in the northwest of the country, while 12 others were injured in the city of Tabriz in northwestern Iran and its surroundings, according to the provincial governor who spoke to the Iranian news agency ISNA.
"At least eight people were killed following the attacks of the Zionist regime," said Majid Farsi, governor of East Azerbaijan province, whose capital is Tabriz.
According to the New York Times, the death toll is as follows:
Generals
- General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of the general staff of the armed forces and second in command after Ayatollah Khamenei. He was replaced by General Abdolrahim Mousavi, according to the Iranian state news agency IRNA.
- General Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's main military force. He was replaced by General Mohammad Pakpour, according to IRNA.
- General Gholamali Rashid, deputy chief of the armed forces.
- General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guard's space unit.
Politicians
- Ali Shamkhani, one of Iran's most powerful politicians and a close aide to Ayatollah Khamenei, has been killed, according to three senior Iranian officials and media reports. He oversaw nuclear negotiations with the United States as part of a committee appointed by the supreme leader to lead the negotiations.
Nuclear scientists
- Fereydoun Abbasi, former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
- Mohammad Mehdi Tehranji, theoretical physicist and president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran.
And who is left in Iran's leadership pyramid? The New York Times presents the current situation in two graphs:
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