On June 13, some media outlets in Iran reported that Mohammad Bagheri – the head of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff – was killed in an airstrike allegedly conducted by Israel targeting Tehran's capital. Subsequently, official Iranian media outlets confirmed this information, despite earlier sources suggesting he was still alive and managing military operations in the war command room.
Mohammad Bagheri was known as the highest-ranking military figure in Iran since 2016, playing a central role in the country's strategic defense command system. He holds a doctorate in geopolitics and has previously taught at several high-level military training institutions, including Iran's Supreme National Defense University.
In addition to Bagheri, Iranian media also reported that the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hossein Salami, along with two prominent nuclear experts, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, were killed in the same airstrike.
In response to the incident, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a strong statement on the same day, June 13, warning that the country suspected of carrying out the attack – implying Israel – would face severe consequences. Khamenei confirmed that several Iranian generals and key scientists had been martyred, emphasizing that retaliation was inevitable.
The incident marks a serious escalation in tensions between Iran and Israel, raising the risk of a widespread military chain reaction in the Middle East – a region already fraught with geopolitical and national defense instabilities.
