ISRAEL struck dozens of targets, including nuclear facilities, military sites and private residences, across Iran on Friday, killing a number of senior military commanders in what it called ‘Operation Rising Lion’, BBC News reported.

The Israeli attacks also targeted a number of other influential figures linked to Iran’s nuclear programmes, including six nuclear scientists, according to the Tasnim news agency.

Friday’s strikes killed Iran’s highest-ranking military officer, armed forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri, and the head of the powerful Islamic Revol­utionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, Iranian media reported.

Dozens of civilians, including children, have also been reported killed while state television said a senior adviser to Khamenei was also wounded.

Mohammad Bagheri

Bagheri was the highest ranking military officer in the country, as the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces — which includes both the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and the Iranian army.

Bagheri joined the IRGC in 1980 at the age of 20 and, alongside his brother, helped establish its intelligence unit during the Iran-Iraq war.

Abdolrahim Mousavi has been appointed the new chief of staff of the armed forces, Iranian state news agency Irna said. He does not come from within the ranks of the IRGC, being an army general.

Hossein Salami

Commander-in-chief of the IRGC, Salami joined the force in 1980 during the Iran-Iraq war, and went on to become a deputy commander in 2009, before progressing to commander in 2019.

Mohammad Pakpour has been appointed as the new commander of the IRGC, Iranian state media reported.

Gholamali Rashid

Rashid was the head of the IRGC’s Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters, which coordinates joint Iranian military operations.

Since Rashid’s death, Ali Shadmani has been appointed the emergency command’s new leader, according to Iranian state media.

Amir Ali Hajizadeh

The commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force, Hajizadeh was one of the top men in charge of the country’s missile programme.

The IDF said Hajizadeh had gathered in an underground command centre along with the majority of the IRGC’s air force commanders to prepare for an attack on Israel, and was killed in a strike targeting the building.

Nuclear scientists

Fereydoon Abbasi, a nuclear scientist, served as the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation between 2011 and 2013.

A number of other nuclear scientists are also reported by Iranian state media to have been killed. They are: Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, who was also the head of Azad University in Tehran; Abdulhamid Minouchehr, head of nuclear engineering at Iran’s Shahid Beheshti University; Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari, a nuclear engineering professor at Shahid Beheshti University; and, Amirhossein Feqhi, another nuclear professor at Shahid Beheshti University.

Header image: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander-in-Chief Major General Hossein Salami speaks during a parliament meeting in Tehran, Iran, January 22, 2023. — Reuters

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2025