The commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ air force, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Iran early on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces announced, marking another senior Iranian military official killed during the Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic.
According to the military, the top brass of the IRGC Aerospace Force was killed alongside Hajizadeh as they met in an underground command center after the start of the Israeli attack, to prepare Iran’s retaliation. Besides Hajizadeh, the commanders of the IRGC’s drone and air defense units were also killed.
The IRGC confirmed the attack, saying Hajizadeh, “along with a group of brave and dedicated fighters of this force, were martyred.”
The command center was struck by fighter jets, the IDF said, adding that among the senior officials killed were the commanders of the IRGC’s drone unit and air defense unit.
The IRGC air force was responsible for Iran’s ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel in April and October last year.
The IDF said the officials also led a 2019 drone attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.
“Hajizadeh publicly pledged allegiance to the idea of destroying Israel on multiple occasions in recent years and played a central role in formulating the plan to destroy Israel,” the army added.
An Israeli official told Fox News: “We carried out specific activities to help us learn more about them, and then used that information to influence their behavior. We knew this would lead them to meet — but more importantly, we knew how to keep them there.”
In July 2024, Hajizadeh said he was looking forward to an opportunity to strike Israel again after having targeted the country a few months prior in a large-scale missile and drone attack. Iran did so again a few months later.
Hajizadeh was one of a series of senior Iranian officials, including IRGC chief Hossein Salami, Chief of the General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, and other military officials and nuclear scientists, who were killed by Israel on Friday.
The attack also saw Israel strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in Natanz and damage the country’s ballistic missile infrastructure.
The Israeli strikes followed repeated threats from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who finally capped a years-long threat to strike Iran’s rogue nuclear program.
Iran, which avowedly seeks Israel’s destruction, has denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it has been enriching uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, has obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities, and some of its officials have increasingly warned that they could pursue the bomb.