DUBAI: Iran’s chief of army staff and defense minister were killed in an airstrike targeting a meeting of the country’s defense council, Iranian state television reported Sunday.
Gen. Abdol Rahim Mousavi and Defense Minister Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh were killed at the meeting alongside the head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and security adviser Ali Shamkhani, whose deaths Iran previously announced Sunday morning.
Iran fired missiles at targets in Israel and Gulf Arab states Sunday after vowing massive retaliation for the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by the United States and Israel, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to threaten Tehran against further escalation.
Iran acknowledged 86-year-old Khamenei’s death in the joint Israeli-American airstrike Saturday at his Tehran office, which has thrown the future of the Islamic Republic into question and raised the risk of regional instability.
“This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country,” Trump said.
Iran’s Cabinet vowed that this “great crime will never go unanswered” and the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to launch its “most intense offensive operation” ever, targeting Israeli and American bases.
