Spokesman of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Ali Mohammad Naini has been killed, reported state media on Friday as the war with US-Israel continued to rattle the entire Gulf.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a multi-service primary force of the Iranian Armed Forces. Track US-Iran war live updates here
Naini has been killed in strikes launched by the US and Israel, state media reported. Naini “was martyred in the criminal cowardly terrorist attack by the American-Zionist side at dawn”, AFP news agency reported, citing the Guards’ statement carried on their Sepah News website.
The news of Naini’s killing came hours after his remarks against US and Israel were quoted by local media.
“Our missile industry deserves a perfect score… and there is no concern in this regard, because even under wartime conditions we continue missile production,” Fars news agency had quoted Naini as saying hours before his killing was reported.
Fourth major blow for Iran
This is the fourth major blow to Iran government and military leadership this week with the country having lost three other top officials – Ali Larijani, Gholamreza Soleimani and Esmail Khatib – in strikes.
The drone and missile exchange, triggered by the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, saw a sharp escalation this week with Israel striking South Pars gas field attack and Iran retaliating by hitting world’s largest LNG plant in Qatar – the Ras Laffan facility.
While Israel did not claim the South Pars gas field attack, US President Donald Trump attributed the strike to Israel and said on Truth Social on Friday that the Iranian gas won’t be attacked further. Trump, however, warned on social media that if Iran continued striking Qatar’s energy infrastructure, the US would retaliate and “massively blow up the entirety” of the field.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz on Thursday promised more “surprises” after saying it killed Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib, in an earlier airstrike as it works to decapitate the leadership of Tehran’s theocracy.
Two days earlier, Israel killed top Iranian security official Ali Larijani and the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force, General Gholamreza Soleimani.
