 "Israeli strike in Iran kills Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami, say state media")
An Israeli strike in Iran on Friday killed the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) chief Hossein Salami, according to the state media.
IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency has reported that Salami was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the IRGC headquarters.
Salami is understood to be among many top Iranian commanders and other officials targeted by Israeli in its airstrikes. State-owned Mehr news agency also reported Salami’s death.
**Follow our live coverage of Israeli attack on Iran here**Israel targeted several nuclear and military sites in Iran in the early hours of Friday. Israel dubbed it ‘Operation Rising Lion’.
Israel targeted at least six military bases around Iranian capital Tehran and homes at two highly secure complexes for military commanders and multiple residential buildings around Tehran in apparent targeted assassinations, The New York Times Times reported four senior Iranian officials as saying.
The IRGC is the elite armed force of Iran that reports directly to the Supreme Leader and functions outside of the command and control structure of the country’s regular military. It is seen as the personal sword-arm of the Supreme Leader.
Besides Salami, Major General Gholamali Rashid, the deputy commander of the Iranian armed forces and Fereydoun Abbasi, a nuclear scientist, have also been killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to state media.
ALSO READ: As Israel & Iran stand on brink of war, here's how Islamic Revolution turned partners into enemies
Israel has long considered an Iranian nuclear weapon to be an existential threat. The Israeli strikes came even as US negotiators were preparing to meet Iranians for the sixth round of talks for their nuclear programme on Sunday. In recent months, it had been reported that Iran had ramped up the development of near-weapons grade nuclear fuel. The US intelligence agencies had also assessed that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon in just a few months — down from previous assessments of 12-18 months.
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