Israel targets top Iranian official Ali Larijani in overnight airstrike

Israel targeted top Iranian official Ali Larijani in an airstrike in Iran overnight, according to Israeli officials.

It is unclear if Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, was killed or injured in the strike, the officials say.

Larijani was the right-hand man of late supreme leader Ali Khamenei until the latter’s killing at the start of the war, and was seen as a leading figure in the regime since Khamenei’s death.

Meanwhile, another recent Israeli airstrike in Iran targeted Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Akram al-Ajouri and other top officials in the terror group, according to defense sources.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir appears to confirm the details. During an assessment this morning, Zamir says that “significant elimination achievements were also recorded overnight, with the potential to impact the campaign’s achievements and the IDF’s missions” — in an apparent reference to the strike targeting Larijani.

“This is in addition to eliminations carried out in recent days in Iran against external elements, also linked to the Palestinian arena,” Zamir says, referring to the Islamic Jihad officials.

He says that the “senior operatives involved in terrorist activity from Gaza and from Judea and Samaria (West Bank)” were hiding in a safe house in Tehran when they were struck.