JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday that Iran’s powerful national security chief Ali Larijani was “eliminated last night”, along with the commander of the Islamic republic’s Basij paramilitary force.

The killing of Larijani, if confirmed by Tehran, would represent the highest-profile assassination since Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and other senior figures were slain during the wave of US-Israeli strikes that started the war on February 28.

Katz said in a televised statement that he had been informed by Israel’s military chief that Larijani and the head of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force Gholamreza Soleimani “were eliminated last night”.

He said the two leaders “have joined Khamenei, the head of the annihilation program, along with all those eliminated from the axis of evil in the depths of hell”.

An Israeli military official said that the army had also targeted a top military commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Akram al-Ajouri, in a strike in Iran and was assessing whether he had been killed.

Ajouri was the head of the group’s military wing, the al-Quds Brigades, which are active in the West Bank and Gaza, and took part in Hamas’ unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

The Israeli official described Larijani as “the de facto leader of the Iranian regime, especially in the last two weeks, but also before, he was considered the one who was calling the shots and moving the pieces around”.

The Israeli prime minister’s office released a photo of the premier on the phone, captioned: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders the elimination of senior figures in the Iranian regime.”

Israel’s military had announced earlier that it killed Basij chief Soleimani “in a precise strike in Tehran”.

“Yesterday (Monday), the Israeli Air Force, acting on IDF intelligence, targeted and eliminated Gholamreza Soleimani, who operated as commander of the Basij unit for the past six years,” it said.

The Basij, a volunteer force under Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, “led the main repression operations” by the authorities during recent mass protests in Iran, the Israeli army said.

The military said that Soleimani was killed along with other Basij commanders by an air strike on a “makeshift headquarters”.

Iran was rocked by unprecedented protests against the clerical establishment that peaked in January.

They were met with a crackdown in which, according to rights groups, thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands arrested.

The Israeli military has said in recent days that it was targeting Basij checkpoints set up around Tehran, in a bid to undermine the grip of the authorities on power.

Shortly after the statement by Katz, AFP journalists in Jerusalem heard distant blasts and sirens sounded in the north of Israel following a warning of incoming Iranian missiles.