Israël’s defense minister, Naftali Bennett, announced in a video message on Tuesday, March 17 that, “The Chief of Staff has just informed me that [Ali] Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and [Gholamreza] Soleimani, head of the Bassidj, Iran’s central repressive apparatus, were eliminated last night.” According to Bennett, the two men have joined Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader, and all members of “the axis of evil in the deepest of hell.” This marks a messianic tone for a regime decapitation war against the Mullahs and the Revolutionary Guards that continues. Ali Larijani was the man behind the repression of early-year protests, the leader of Iran’s security forces. He was last seen in public on Friday during demonstrations in the Iranian capital.
So far, Tehran has not confirmed this information, and to possibly confuse matters, a message was posted mid-morning on Ali Larijani’s own account, paying tribute to the Iranian sailors killed last week.
On the other hand, the Israeli Defense Minister assured that “the Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) and myself instructed the Israeli army to relentlessly pursue the leaders of the regime of terror and oppression in Iran.” Naftali Bennett then praised “the pilots and ground crews of the Air Force, as well as all branches and intelligence personnel” for this operation, which he claimed will go down in history as an unprecedented feat in modern aerial warfare.
/2026/03/17/xnaphotostwo162235-69b8fc957b6f8674688340.jpg "Israels new strategy is to prevent civilians from returning home, denounces Lebanese Culture Minister")
