Loss of such senior IRGC figures would mark one of the most significant blows to Iran’s internal security apparatus since the beginning of the preemptive Operation Rising Lion.

By David Brummer, The IDF Club

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that an Israel Air Force airstrike on central Tehran on Sunday, eliminated the two most senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence chiefs.

Speaking to US TV Fox News’s Brett Baier, Netanyahu maintained the strike killed Mohammad Kazemi, head of the IRGC’s intelligence directorate, along with his deputy, Hassan Mohagheghi.

The attack came amid another day of high drama in the Islamic Republic, as Israeli fighter jets and bombers took advantage of their dominance of the skies.

If confirmed, the strike and loss of such senior IRGC figures would mark one of the most significant blows to Iran’s internal security apparatus since the beginning of the preemptive Operation Rising Lion.

Israel carried out numerous other strikes in Tehran, which caused the city’s historic bazaar to be closed.

According to the London-based Iran International TV channel, traffic volume also surged at major exit points from Tehran, including the Tehran-North highway and the Tehran-Qom route.

In the Fox interview, the prime minister brushed aside US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s March pronouncement that Iran had not been pursuing a nuclear weapon, claiming that the Islamic Republic was on the verge of it.

“The intel we got and we shared with the United States was absolutely clear — was absolutely clear, that they were working in a secret plan to weaponize the uranium,” he said.

“They were marching very quickly. They would achieve a test device and possibly an initial device within months, and certainly less than a year,” the prime minister added.