On Sunday, June 15, Israel killed three senior intelligence officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran in the escalating conflict between the two countries. Among them was Mohammad Kazemi, the head of the IRGC Intelligence Department.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in an interview with Fox News on Sunday afternoon that Israel targeted the IRGC intelligence chief Kazemi in an airstrike on the same day. He told Fox News host Bret Baier, “Just now, we eliminated this chief intelligence officer and his deputy in Tehran, because we are flying over Tehran right now.”
The Tasnim News Agency of Iran confirmed the news. The semi-official Iranian news agency cited a statement from the IRGC confirming the deaths of Kazemi, his deputy Hassan Mohaqiq, and another senior intelligence official, Mohsen Bagheri, in Sunday’s airstrike.
On Sunday, Iran and Israel engaged in the third day of mutual attacks. Some Iranian missiles breached Israel’s air defense system, but Israel’s airstrikes also resulted in the deaths of more Iranian senior officials.
In the recent series of attacks, Israel has already killed several top Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists, including IRGC Commander Hossein Salami and Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Mohammad Bagheri. Bagheri was the second-highest military commander in Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Since Israel began conducting airstrikes in the early hours of last Friday local time, Iran’s military command structure has been significantly impacted. At least nearly ten senior Iranian generals have been killed, along with a senior politician and at least five nuclear scientists in these attacks. Israel’s preemptive strikes against Iran’s nuclear program seem to have yielded significant results.
Netanyahu told Fox News on Sunday that he believes Israel’s large-scale airstrikes launched last Friday had a surprise effect. “I think we have set them back quite a bit,” he said.
Furthermore, Netanyahu expressed his concern that the negotiations between the United States and Iran regarding the Iranian nuclear program are not progressing towards a resolution. He indicated that he does not want to wait until the negotiations formally collapse before taking action.
“This is not how I wage wars, and this is not how Israel wages wars,” he told Fox News host Baier.