Majid Khademi, the intelligence chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Courtesy of Tasnim news agency.
"Major General Majid Khademi, the powerful and educated head of the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was martyred in the criminal terrorist attack by the American-Zionist enemy... at dawn today," said the Guards in a post on their Telegram channel.
It did not elaborate on where Khademi was killed. However, multiple airstrikes targeted residential areas around Iran’s capital, Tehran, early Monday morning.
Khademi took over for Gen. Mohammad Kazemi, who Israel killed in the 12-day war in June.
Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed the killing of the intelligence chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Monday.
“Iran’s leaders live with a sense of being targeted. We will continue to hunt them down one by one,” Katz said.
Israel and the United States carried out a wave of attacks on Iran on Monday, killing more than 25 people, and Iran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors.
Explosions rang out in Tehran and low-flying jets could be heard for hours as the capital was pounded. Thick black smoke rose near the city’s Azadi Square after one airstrike hit the grounds of the Sharif University of Technology.
Iranian missiles hit the northern Israeli city of Haifa, where two people were found dead in the rubble of a residential building, and searchers looked for two more.
Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia all activated their air defense systems to intercept incoming Iranian missiles and drones, as Tehran kept up the pressure on its Gulf neighbors.
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