Tel Aviv/Tehran, June 14 (UNI) The chiefs of Iran’s military intelligence and the IRGC’s ballistic missile unit were killed in the Israeli strikes on Friday, the IDF has said.
In all, some 20 top military Iranian commanders have been killed since Israel launched its operation against Iran on Friday, the IDF said.
Gholam-Reza Marhabi, head of the intelligence department of the Iranian Armed Forces, was killed in Israel’s opening strikes early Friday, the IDF said.
Marhabi “was responsible for intelligence situational assessments for the Iranian Armed Forces and was considered Iran’s most senior intelligence officer.”
“Marhabi played a key role in intelligence evaluations, operational planning, and combat preparations against Israel in the past year and before,” the Israeli military said, adding that he was a “highly respected senior figure within the regime’s security organization and a close associate of” Mohammad Bagheri, the Armed Forces chief of staff who was also killed on Friday, the Israeli news sites reported.
Additionally, the IDF says a strike on Friday killed “the commander of the IRGC’s Surface-To-Surface Missile Array, Mohammad Bagheri.”
The IDF says Bagheri “oversaw most of Iran’s long-range surface-to-surface and cruise missile capabilities.”
Bagheri was killed alongside the commander of the IRGC air force and other top commanders in the unit while meeting at an underground command center to prepare to attack Israel, according to the IDF.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said over 70 Israeli Air Force fighter jets participated in the overnight operation in Tehran, with 40 sites being targeted, including air defense systems and related assets.
IAF fighter jets and drones flew over Tehran for some two and a half hours during the operation, Defrin says.
“The dozens of aircraft removed the threat of Iranian air defense systems,” he said.
“Tehran is no longer immune; the capital is exposed to Israeli strikes,” he added.
