On the night of March 16, 2026, the Israeli Air Force launched a series of targeted strikes across Tehran. By Tuesday morning, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed that Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and the man widely regarded as the de facto leader of the Islamic Republic since the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28, had been killed in a safehouse near Tehran.

In a separate strike the same night, the Israeli military confirmed the killing of Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of the Basij paramilitary militia, along with his deputy Seyyed Karishi and several other top Basij officers. Soleimani and his team were struck in a makeshift tent camp they had recently set up near the capital, after many of their fixed headquarters were destroyed by Israel over the previous two weeks. The head of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force was also killed overnight.

Iran has not confirmed any of it. A handwritten note attributed to Larijani was published on state media hours after the announcement, mourning Iranian sailors killed in a recent U.S. attack. No one could verify when the note was written. No one could verify if Larijani wrote it. A senior Israeli official told the Jerusalem Post: “There was no chance he survived this attack.”

The man who held it together

Ali Larijani was not a general. He was something more dangerous to lose. He was the institutional memory of the Islamic Republic.

Former IRGC commander. Speaker of Iran’s parliament for twelve years. Chief nuclear negotiator between 2005 and 2007. Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. Close adviser and right-hand man to Khamenei for decades. When the supreme leader was killed on February 28 along with approximately 40 senior officials, it was Larijani who stepped forward.

On March 1, he announced he would lead an interim committee to run the country. While Mojtaba Khamenei was technically appointed as the new supreme leader on March 8, Israeli and American intelligence have reported that Mojtaba is badly wounded and has made no public appearances. Larijani was the one running day-to-day security affairs. He was the one responding to Trump’s threats. On March 10, he issued a veiled warning to the American president: “Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself.”

Last Friday, March 14, Larijani walked through the streets of Tehran in the Quds Day rally. Defiant. Visible. Public. Three days later, a missile found him in a safehouse near the capital.

Something happened between Friday and Monday night. Someone tracked where he went after the rally. Someone reported where he was hiding. Someone connected the dots.

Larijani’s death is not an isolated event. It is the latest entry in a campaign of systematic decapitation that has no modern precedent in its speed and depth.

On the opening night of the Twelve-Day War in June 2025, Israel killed 30 Iranian generals in minutes and nine nuclear scientists in coordinated strikes. By the end of the war, the total reached........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)