Iran’s national security council confirms death of its chief, Ali Larijani

Larijani was killed by an Israeli airstrike and is the most senior Iranian fatality since Ali Khamenei on first day of war Iran’s supreme national security council has confirmed the death of its chief, Ali Larijani, after Israel said it had killed him in an airstrike. “The pure souls of the martyrs embraced the purified soul of God’s righteous servant, Martyr Dr Ali Larijani,” the council said on Tuesday evening, adding that his son and his bodyguards had died with him. “After a lifetime of struggle for the advancement of Iran and of the Islamic Revolution, he ultimately attained his long-held aspiration, answered the divine call, and honourably achieved the sweet grace of martyrdom in the trench of service,” it added. Iran’s army chief Amir Hatami threatened to launch a “decisive and regrettable” retaliation for the killing . Israel said earlier it had killed Larijani, a linchpin of Iranian politics, in overnight strikes. He is the most senior Iranian figure to die in the war since the supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed on its first day. His death removes a pivotal figure at the heart of the regime’s political and security establishment at a moment of acute