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29-03-2026
JERUSALEM: An Israeli air strike has killed Alireza Tangsiri, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy, Israel’s defence minister says.
The killing was carried out on Wednesday night “in a precise … operation” and targeted other “senior officers of the naval command”, Israel Katz said on Thursday in a video statement.
“The man who was directly responsible for the terrorist operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz to shipping was blown up and eliminated,” he said.
Since the start of the United States-Israeli war on Iran on February 28, Israel has announced the assassination of several top Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and security chief Ali Larijani.
Journalist Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said there was no official Iranian confirmation yet of Tangsiri’s killing “but if it’s true, it’s going to be another major blow for a country that has already experienced a lot of military commanders being killed,” he said.
The head of the Basij paramilitary forces, Brigadier General Gholamreza Soleimani, and Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib were also assassinated in Israeli attacks.
Moreover, in recent days, Israeli forces have carried out several strikes targeting the naval assets of Iran.
Last week, Israeli air strikes hit several Iranian naval ships in the Caspian Sea, including ones equipped with missile systems, support vessels and patrol craft.
On 18th March, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has confirmed that Israel killed Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib in an overnight attack, marking the third assassination of a high-ranking Iranian official in two days.
The announcement on Wednesday comes hours after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed the Iranian minister had been killed.
Iranian security chief Ali Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij paramilitary force, were also killed in Israeli air strikes on Tuesday.
Pezeshkian condemned the “cowardly assassination of my dear colleagues”, saying they “left us heartbroken.” In a post on social media, he added that their “path will continue stronger than before.”
Journalist Nida Ibrahim, reporting from the occupied West Bank, said Israeli military analysts regarded Khatib as having been a trusted figure close to Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.
“According to Israeli sources, they said they have been gathering intelligence that allowed them in the past 24 hours to declare the deaths of three senior Iranian officials,” Ibrahim said.
Katz also announced that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given the Israeli military standing authorization to eliminate other senior Iranian officials in their sights without case-by-case approval.
“This is seen as another success from the Israeli perspective in targeting the Iranian leadership,” she said.
Reporting from Tehran, journalist Mohamed Vall said, “In terms of his credentials, he ‘ticked every box’ in Iran, having graduated from the influential seminary in Qom and previously studied under the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.”
“So he was really one of the top clerics, and he even has the title, Proof of Islam, one of the highest titles in the country. “He is really well placed, religiously, ideologically and with decades of experience in the circles of intelligence, particularly civilian intelligence,” Vall added.
“He’s a man whose killing, no doubt about it, will cause a dent to the remaining structure of the regime, the government. So that is what the Israelis are counting on,” he concluded. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
