
File photo: Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei (L), with IRGC chief Hossein Salami (2nd R) and aerospace force head Amir Ali Hajizadeh (R) at an exhibition in Tehran. AFP
Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi was appointed chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, replacing Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, who was killed in Friday’s Israeli strike.
Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour was promoted to major general and named commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), succeeding Hossein Salami, also killed in the same attack.
Later reports indicated Mousavi was also named to replace Amirali Hajizadeh as head of the IRGC aerospace force.
Brigadier General Ali Shadmani was appointed head of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters, replacing General Gholam Ali Rashid, another top commander confirmed dead in the assault.
In official decrees, Khamenei described the slain commanders’ deaths as “glorious and dignified martyrdom at the hands of the evil Zionist regime.”
Iranian state media also confirmed the deaths of two more senior officers: General Gholamreza Mehrabi, deputy head of intelligence for the armed forces general staff, and General Mehdi Rabbani, deputy head of operations.
Israel said it killed nine Iranian nuclear scientists in Friday’s attacks, raising the figure from six announced earlier. It also claimed to have destroyed key nuclear infrastructure, including the Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
It has not commented on civilian casualties.
Tehran says at least 78 people were killed and more than 320 wounded in the strikes, which hit military and nuclear targets as well as residential areas.
Among the dead were 60 civilians, including 20 children, killed when an Israeli missile flattened a 14-storey building in a residential compound in the capital.
Ten bodies remain trapped beneath the rubble, Iranian media reported.
The Israeli assault marked a significant escalation in the conflict, prompting Iranian missile barrages on central Israel, where seven soldiers were injured.
Iran has vowed to make Israel “pay a heavy price” for the strikes.
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