Israel claims to have assassinated commander of Iran’s Basij militia unit

DEVELOPING STORY, If confirmed, Gholamreza Soleimani would be the highest-level assassination in the war since US-Israeli forces killed former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.Published On 17 Mar 2026The Israeli military has claimed in a social media post that it killed Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of the Basij unit, the internal security paramilitary militia of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).“Guided by precise intelligence from Military Intelligence, the Air Force conducted a targeted strike yesterday in the heart of Tehran, eliminating Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of the Basij unit over the past six years,” it said on X on Tuesday.Iran has not commented on the claim, neither confirming nor denying it.Separately on Tuesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel-katz" class="entity-link entity-person" data-entity-id="4249" data-entity-type="person">Israel Katz said Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was also killed in a strike. Iran has not commented on this claim either.If confirmed, Soleimani and Larijani would be the highest-level killings since US-Israeli strikes killed former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with several of his family members and top military and political aides, on the first day of the war on February 28.The US Treasury records Soleimani’s birth year as 1965. He has been sanctioned by the United States, the European Union and other countries for his alleged role in suppressing dissent through the Basij.The Basij is a volunteer paramilitary force under Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), founded after the 1979 revolution and tasked with enforcing internal security nationwide.It operates local branches across cities and is frequently deployed on the front lines of protests to crack down, including the antigovernment demonstrations that erupted across Iran in January, in which thousands were reportedly killed, and stretching back to the 2009 mass protests against what opponents called a stolen presidential election.