By sayyed shahab-o- din vajedi - Wikipedia
At least 10 members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Sunday in the central province of Yazd, according to Iranian media reports. The strikes, among the deadliest since the latest escalation between Israel and Iran, also left several other IRGC personnel wounded, with the total number of casualties still being assessed.
Iranian authorities have not yet issued a public response to the reported assassinations in Yazd. The IRGC, a powerful military branch that operates under the direct command of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is responsible for overseeing Iran’s foreign operations, as well as its ballistic missile and nuclear programs. With an estimated 190,000 active personnel, the IRGC was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019.
Semi-official Tasnim News Agency described the strikes as one of Israel’s most lethal operations on Iranian soil in recent memory. Israel has not formally acknowledged the attack in Yazd but has claimed responsibility for the assassination of approximately two dozen high-ranking Iranian military commanders and nuclear scientists since June 13.
Among the high-profile fatalities are several key figures in Iran’s defense and nuclear establishment. Iranian state media has confirmed the deaths of IRGC commander Hossein Salami, Armed Forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri, IRGC aerospace commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, and General Gholamali Rashid. In addition, six prominent Iranian nuclear scientists were reportedly killed, and hundreds of others wounded in the widespread attacks.
These developments mark a dangerous peak in hostilities between the two adversaries. Israeli forces launched an extensive wave of airstrikes, deploying nearly 200 fighter jets to strike multiple Iranian cities including Tehran, Isfahan, Arak, Tabriz, and Kermanshah. In Kermanshah, which lies close to the Iraqi border, an underground ballistic missile storage site was reportedly destroyed.
The IRGC has since responded by employing the Kheibar Shekan missile—also known as Khorramshahr-4—which was unveiled in 2022 and is considered the most potent in Iran’s arsenal due to its heavy payload capacity. According to Iranian media, these missiles were aimed at targets including Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport and several scientific research facilities.
In the aftermath of the killings, Supreme Leader Khamenei appointed Ahmad Vahidi as the new IRGC chief, while Majid Mousavi was named the new head of the aerospace division, signaling an immediate restructuring at the highest levels of Iran’s military leadership.
Human Rights Activists (HRA), a Washington-based independent monitoring group known for tracking human rights violations during the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests, has released updated casualty figures that starkly contrast official Iranian government numbers. According to HRA, at least 950 people have been killed and more than 3,450 wounded across Iran as a result of Israeli airstrikes. Their report notes that among the dead are 380 civilians and 253 members of Iran’s security forces.
The Iranian Health Ministry’s most recent update, however, reported only 400 deaths and over 3,000 injuries—figures that fall significantly short of HRA’s independently verified toll.
Notably, senior Iranian diplomat Ali Shamkhani, who has been engaged in backchannel negotiations with the United States, is among those critically injured. His condition remains serious following injuries sustained during the strikes.
The situation remains fluid, with growing concerns over further escalations as both nations assess the fallout from the recent wave of targeted attacks.
