The Israeli military said Tuesday it killed Iran’s top military commander, Ali Shadmani, in an overnight strike, calling him the closest figure to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“For the second time in 5 days– the IDF has eliminated Iran’s War-Time Chief of Staff, the regime’s top military commander. Ali Shadmani, Iran’s senior-most military official and Khamenei’s closest military advisor, was killed in an IAF strike in central Tehran, following precise intelligence,” Israel Defence Forces said in a post on X.
The Israeli military said Shadmani had commanded both the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian armed forces.
In an earlier post, the IDF claimed that it completed several extensive strikes on military targets of the Iranian regime in western Iran, including surface-to-surface missile storage sites, launch infrastructure, surface-to-air missile launchers and UAV storage sites.
Israel appears to be expanding its air campaign on Tehran five days after its surprise attack on Iran’s military and nuclear programme, as US President Donald Trump posted an ominous message warning residents of the city to evacuate.
Earlier, the Israeli military had called for some 330,000 residents of a neighborhood in the city center to evacuate. Tehran is one of the largest cities in the Middle East, with around 10 million people, roughly equivalent to the entire population of Israel. People have been fleeing since the hostilities began.
Israel says its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientiests, uranium enrichment sites and ballistic missile programme is necessary to prevent its longtime adversary from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon. The strikes have killed at least 224 people since Friday.
Iran has retaliated by launching more than 370 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel. So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel and more than 500 wounded.
