RIYADH: Iranian state television reported early Friday that Hossein Salami, the chief of the Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was killed in an Israeli strike.
An anchor read a statement saying: “The news of assassination and martyrdom of Gen. Hossein Salami was confirmed.” The anchor did not elaborate.
Another top Guard official was also reported killed along with Salami when the IRGC headquarters in Tehran was hit.
A major power center within Iran’s theocracy, with vast business interests and oversees the nation’s ballistic missile arsenal, the IRGC had been accused by Iran's neighbors of maintaining proxy militias such as the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and those in Iraq.
State television and local media also reported the death of two scientists working on Iran's nuclear program. They were identified as Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi.
