Israel says it killed Iran intel minister in third assassination in 2 days

DEVELOPING STORY, If the death of Esmaeil Khatib is confirmed, it would be the third major high-profile assassination of Iranian leaders n successive days.Defence Minister Israel-katz" class="entity-link entity-person" data-entity-id="4249" data-entity-type="person">Israel Katz has claimed Israel has killed Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmaeil Khatib. Tehran has not commented on, nor confirmed the attack.If the claim announced Wednesday is confirmed, it would be the third major high-profile assassination of Iranian leaders in two days.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Who was Ali Larijani, Iran’s powerful insider?list 2 of 4Who was Gholamreza Soleimani, killed commander of Iran’s Basij forces?list 3 of 4Killing of Larijani will not destabilise Iranian political system: Ministerlist 4 of 4Iran launches ‘revenge’ missile attack on Israel after assassinationsend of listIsrael’s assassination of Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij paramilitary force, who were both killed in Israeli air strikes on Tuesday, came as a blow to Iran. Iran will hold funerals on Wednesday for both men.Howvere, Larijani’s killing will not deal a fatal blow to Iran’s leadership, the country’s foreign minister said.In an interview with Al Jazeera, aired after the killing of Larijani was confirmed by Tehran early on Wednesday, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi said the United States and Israel had yet to realise that Iran’s government does not rely on a single individual.Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting form the occupied West Bank. said that Israeli military analysts regard Khatib as having been a trusted figure close to Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.“According to Israeli sources, they said they have been gathering intelligence that allowed them in the past 24 hours to declare the deaths of three senior Iranian officials,” Ibrahim said.Katz also announced that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given the Israeli military standing authorisation to eliminate other senior Iranian officials in their sights, without requiring case-by-case approval.