Nearly a week after Israel started striking Iranian territory on June 13, the status of several high-ranking commanders in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Iranian regime, was still unclear, fueling speculation about whether they had been wounded, had disappeared or died without official confirmation. They include Ismail Qaani, commander of the Quds Force, the elite unit responsible for external operations, Ali Reza Tangsiri, commander of the Guards’ Navy, and Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij, the territorial militia groups that operate under the Guards’ authority. Since the start of hostilities, none of them have made any public statements or appearances, though they had typically ranked among the regime’s most outspoken and virulent voices.
Their sudden silence, combined with the lack of appointments to several vacant positions, notably that of the commander of the ground forces of the Revolutionary Guards, as the officer who had previously held the position has replaced his superior, who was killed, has raised serious questions about the true scale of the casualties within Iran’s military leadership. Israel claims to have killed around 20 high-ranking Iranian officers, but the Iranian authorities have acknowledged only about half that number. As of yet, no public funeral ceremonies for the dead commanders have been held in Iran.
Several key figures in the Iranian military hierarchy were killed in the very first wave of strikes, on June 13, including Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces; Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Guards; Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the Guards’ aerospace force commander, in charge of Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal; and Gholamali Rashid, head of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters (home to the Guards’ engineering branch). On June 17, four days after Rashid was appointed by Iran’s supreme leader, his replacement, Ali Shadmani, was also killed.
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