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Monday, March 2, 2026
IDF names several top Iranian intelligence officers killed in opening strike
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleEmanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The IDF announces that several senior Iranian intelligence officials were killed in the opening strikes on Iran on Saturday.
Among them is Seyed Yahya Hamidi, Iran’s deputy intelligence minister for Israel affairs, who the IDF says directed terror attacks against Jews, the West, and “regime opponents in Iran and abroad.”
In addition, the military says the strikes killed Jalal Pour Hossein, head of the espionage department in the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, along with “several other senior officials involved in advancing terrorist activities worldwide and in suppressing the Iranian people.”
The IDF says the killing of the Intelligence Ministry’s leadership “dealt a severe blow to the regime’s ability to advance terror attacks and to target regime opponents in Iran.”
On Sunday, the military says, the Israeli Air Force also bombed the Intelligence Ministry headquarters in Tehran.
The Intelligence Ministry, which is under US sanctions, “is the central intelligence body of the Iranian terror regime, possessing the most advanced capabilities in Iran and operating under the direct authority of the supreme leader,” the IDF says.
The IDF says that it located documents in Gaza during the war that revealed efforts by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry to establish “a joint intelligence operations room of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the IRGC.”
“The Intelligence Ministry also serves as the Iranian terror regime’s primary tool for monitoring the activities of Iranian citizens. Ministry operatives provided intelligence that enabled the violent suppression of protests over the years,” the IDF adds.
The Times of Israel Community.