Iran’s highest-ranking military officer, the head of its elite Revolutionary Guards Corps and its air force and a former national security chief have all been killed in Israel’s unprecedented Operation Rising Lion. Their deaths will send shockwaves through the nation’s military establishment and could seriously hamper the Islamic Republic’s ability to respond to Israel’s attacks. Here’s what you need to know about them. As the head of the secretive Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami, was one of the most powerful men in Iran, overseeing its most potent military arm and reporting directly to its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Born in 1960, according to a US sanctions docket, Salami had headed the secretive and IRGC since 2019. The position saw him helming one of the most powerful tools wielded by the Iranian state, which has been instrumental in crushing dissent at home and projecting Iran’s power abroad. Analysts say the IRGC funds and supports a vast network of militias across the region which it uses to strike at US and other military personnel across the Middle East. The IRGC is also believed to provide materials and support to Yemen’s Houthis, enabling the group to strike international shipping in the Red Sea and launch missiles and drones at Israel. Salami was at the helm of the IRGC when Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel in April and October last year, in the first direct strikes by Iran on Israeli territory. In footage released by Iranian state media in January, Salami was seen inspecting what the media said was an underground military facility that had played a role in those attacks.

Full report : Israeli strikes kill some of Iran’s most powerful men, including military and nuclear leaders.