Iran's Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib Killed In Strikes: Israel

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that they "eliminated" Iran's Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib in a strike overnight. However, Iran has not confirmed Khatib's death.

While announcing Khatib's death, Katz said that "significant surprises are expected throughout this day on all the fronts," without elaborating.

"We will continue to thwart and hunt them all down," he said.

Katz said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given the military a free hand to kill any other senior Iranian official being targeted without taking additional approvals.

Read | Ali Larijani, Killed Along With His Son, Had Opposed Mojtaba's Elevation

This would be the third high-profile assassination of an Iranian leader in two days. On Tuesday, Israel eliminated Iran's security chief, Ali Larijani, and Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' all-volunteer Basij force.

About Esmail Khatib

Khatib was a Shiite cleric who worked in a variety of positions in Iran's judiciary and the Intelligence Ministry. He served in the Revolutionary Guard in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and was wounded in combat.

US Treasury Sanctioned Esmail Khatib In 2022

The US Treasury, which sanctioned Khatib in 2022 over the Intelligence Ministry "engaging in cyber-enabled activities against the United States and its allies", put his year of birth as either 1960 or 1961. It said Khatib had been born in Ghayenat in Iran's South Khorasan Province.

Khatib "directs several networks of cyber threat actors involved in cyber espionage and ransomware attacks in support of Iran's political goals," the Treasury said at the time. "In addition to conducting malicious cyber activity that affected Albanian government websites, (Intelligence Ministry) cyber actors were also responsible for the leaking of documents purported to be from the Albanian government and personal information associated with Albanian residents."

Ali Larijani And Gholamreza Soleimani Assassinated

Larijani is the most prominent figure of the Islamic republic killed since Israel and the United States launched their attacks on Iran on February 28 with a wave of strikes that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and ignited a war across the Middle East.

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani
Photo Credit: AFP

A senior Israeli military intelligence official says Israel killed the head of Iran's Basij force while he was hiding in a tent hidden in a wooded area under some trees.

The official says General Gholam Reza Soleimani was killed with his top staff in the strike.The official says such strikes, which have killed many members of Iran's leadership, are meant to send a message that "they have no safe place."

Read | Iran To Hold Funerals For Larijani, Basij Chief As It Vows Vengeance

Turkey on Tuesday lashed out at Israel and labelled its targeting of Tehran's leaders as "illegal". "Israel's political assassinations, especially those targeting Iranian statesmen and politicians, are truly illegal activities outside the normal laws of war," Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a news conference.