Israel’s Defense Minister claimed on Wednesday (18 March 2026) that the IDF has killed Iran’s Intelligence Minister Ismail Khatib. He said Khatib was killed in the overnight attack. However, no official statement has come from Iran regarding this yet. Ismail Khatib’s death comes after Israel confirmed the killing of Iran’s powerful national security chief Ali Larijani and the head of the IRGC’s Basij paramilitary force.
America had put a bounty on Ismail Khatib’s head
According to the report of news agency Associated Press, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Kartz said that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have given the army the right to target and kill any other senior Iranian official without any additional permission. Khatib was among the officials on whom the US was gathering information last week and had offered a reward of up to $10 million for information about his whereabouts.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has attacked Revolutionary Guard units, supply centers and missile systems for security forces in Tehran. Many people have been killed and injured in this attack. The Israeli Air Force said that they have targeted the command center and missile system in Tehran.
Israel targeting Iran’s top leadership
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council had earlier confirmed that its secretary Ali Larijani had been killed in the Israeli strike. According to the report of Iran’s Tasnim news agency, in a statement, the council said that Larijani died on Tuesday (17 March 2026) morning. Along with him, his son Morteza Larijani, Alireza Bayat, deputy head of security affairs at the council’s secretariat, and several others were also killed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the IDF had killed Larijani in the ongoing attacks on Iran. Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed on Tuesday that the head of the Basij volunteer force, Gholamreza Soleimani, had been killed in a US-Israeli strike.
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