The IDF killed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Basij militia’s intelligence chief Esmail Ahmadi, the military announced on Friday.
Ahmadi was killed in the strikes that targeted other senior Basij militia members, including commander Gholamreza Soleimani and his deputy Seyyed Karishi, earlier this week.
This came amid a series of strikes by the IDF targeting Iranian regime infrastructure across Tehran during the early morning hours on Friday, the military confirmed.
Further, IRGC spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini was killed in the strikes, Iranian state media announced, and the IDF later confirmed.
Naini, who also served as the IRGC’s Public Relations Array chief, served in several propaganda and public relations roles, while serving as the group’s “main propagandist” for the past two years, the IDF stated.
“In his role, Naini disseminated the regime’s terrorist propaganda to its proxies across the Middle East in order to influence and advance terror attacks against the State of Israel from the different fronts. Naini’s elimination joins a series of eliminations of dozens of senior figures of the Iranian regime during the operation,” the military wrote.
A second wave of strikes targeted Nur, east of Tehran, the military confirmed on Friday afternoon.
Israeli strikes burn vessels in Bandar-e Lengeh, IRGC-affiliated outlet claims
Video footage shared by N12 News appears to show explosions in the Iranian capital, while also reporting strikes in other Iranian cities, including Parchin, Kerman, Arak, and Bandar-e Lengeh.
Some of these strikes were corroborated by Iranian media. At least 16 “commercial and civilian barges” belonging to Iranian civilians were burned in an “American-Zionist airstrike” on Bandar-e Lenger, the IRGC-affiliated outlet Tasnim News Agency claimed.
Israeli strikes kill Basij militia members in Tabriz
Later on Friday, reports indicated that a Thursday evening attack at a checkpoint in Tabriz killed 13 members of the IRGC’s Basij militia and injured 18 others.
On Friday, a Basij headquarters in Semnan appears to have been struck, according to footage shared by N12 News.
Strikes across Iran on Thursday damage over 130 regime infrastructure sites
On Thursday night, the military stated that it had struck more than 130 infrastructure sites belonging to the Iranian regime.
The targets included ballistic missile sites, UAVs, and defense systems across Western and central Iran.
The statement read “The Israel Air Force continues to strike in western and central Iran to reduce to the fullest extent possible the scope of fire toward the State of Israel and to expand its aerial superiority over Iran.”
Meanwhile, US Central Command on Thursday posted satellite imagery of the Karaj Surface-to-Surface Missile Plant, showing the damage caused after the US military conducted a strike on the facility on March 11, comparing it to earlier images of before the strike occured.
HRANA calculates at least 3,186 Iranian casualties in past three weeks
Additionally, the Human Rights Activists News Agency collated the casualties in Iran since operations Roaring Lion and Epic Fury began on February 28.
At least 3,186 people have been killed in the three weeks of strikes, HRANA’s data showed, including 1,394 civilians, at least 210 of whom were children, 1,153 “military” fatalities, and 639 “unclassified” fatalities.
HRANA’s data did not distinguish between those killed in Israeli or US strikes.
