Shafaq News- Tehran

Iran’s Defense Minister Amir Nasirzadeh and the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Mohammed Pakpour were killed in strikes targeting senior Iranian leadership, Reuters and Israel’s Channel 12 reported Saturday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

There has been no official confirmation from Tehran.

"Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian are alive, and most senior officials are safe," Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said to NBC News, acknowledging that the country may have lost “some commanders,” but this was “not a major problem.”

The Israeli military said the attack was carried out simultaneously at multiple sites in Tehran, targeting a meeting of senior political and security officials, adding that the operation followed months of operational planning and intensive intelligence work aimed at identifying a window of opportunity when top officials were gathered. Israeli officials decided to strike in the morning rather than at night, allowing Israel to achieve “ tactical surprise despite heightened Iranian alertness.”

Israeli media reported uncertainty over the whereabouts of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and said Ali Shamkhani had been targeted. Iranian state media, however, said senior leaders were safe and that Khamenei had been moved to a secure location outside the capital.