Esmail Khatib, Iran's intelligence minister, was killed in an air strike.

 

Iran's intelligence minister Esmail Khatib has been killed (Image: EPA)

The president of Iran has confirmed that Esmail Khatib, the country's intelligence minister, was killed. After Israel announced on Wednesday that it had killed Khatib in an air strike, Masoud Pezeshkian stated that the "cowardly assassination" had left Iran "in deep mourning." It comes just one day after Israel made the announcement that in strikes, it had killed Ali Larijani, Iran's top security official, and Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the paramilitary Basij force. Numerous senior Iranian officials and commanders have been killed since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated on the first day of the war on February 28 in an effort by Israel and the United States to weaken the regime's leadership.

Read More: Death of Ali Larijani deepens crisis at heart of Iran's leadership

Pezeshkian expressed his condolences to the Iranian people in a post on X regarding the deaths of the officials and stated that he was "certain their path will continue more steadfastly than before." A woman from Tehran told the BBC that "Khatib's death might help the people because he was among the leadership." She stated, "It might be that the likelihood of them being killed now when people come out after a call to protest." "These were the main figures, even though they all have replacements." Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, made the announcement earlier on Wednesday that an Israeli strike on Tehran had "eliminated" Khatib. According to what he stated, "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorised the IDF to eliminate any senior Iranian official for whom the intelligence and operational circle has been closed, without the need for additional approval."

In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said Iran's Ministry of Intelligence had been instrumental in supporting the regime's "repression and terrorist activities" and Khatib had played a "significant role" in the "arrest and killing of protesters" during the crackdown on recent protests in Iran.

 In 2021, the current president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, appointed Khatib as the defense minister. He studied Islamic jurisprudence under several high-ranking clerics, including Khamenei, and held various senior posts in the ministry of intelligence and Office of the Supreme Leader.

 

In 2022, the US Treasury fined him for "engaging in cyber-enabled activities against the United States and its allies" as head of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence. On Wednesday, the funerals of Larijani, Soleimani, and the 84 sailors who perished when the US sank an Iranian warship off the Sri Lankan coast earlier this month drew large crowds to central Tehran. Since the start of the war, Israeli and US strikes on Iran have killed more than 1,300 people, including 226 women and 204 children, the Iranian government claims. Human Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana), based in the United States, puts the death toll higher, reporting on Tuesday that at least 1354 civilians, 1138 military personnel, and 622 others it was unable to classify have been killed since the war began. Iran has responded by carrying out strikes throughout the Middle East. On Wednesday, two people were killed in a strike on Israel, and blasts and drone interceptions were reported in Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Source: BBC