Analysis: How Israel killing leaders in Iran could complicate Trump’s search for an endgame | CNN Politics

Israel compares its assassinations of the top level of Iran’s leadership to severing the head of an octopus. A campaign unmatched in modern warfare started by taking out Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. As it targets the tentacles of the regime, Israel on Wednesday killed intelligence minister Esmail Khatib, a day after the country’s de facto leader Ali Larijani also perished. Israel has previously killed leaders of terrorist groups, including Hezbollah and Hamas — and even Iranian officials in places such as Syria. But now, by escalating against leaders in a direct state-on-state war, it is making a statement of military might and showing that its enemies have nowhere to hide. It is also reflecting the evolving reach of combat enabled by new precision weapons and remarkable intelligence penetration. The latest strikes represent an attempt to change the political realities in Tehran while thousands of air attacks, alongside US forces, devastate the Islamic Republic’s capacity to threaten the outside world with missiles and drones. Assassinations of foreign leaders have long been considered illegal under US and international law. Many critics view the Iran war itself as an insul