Tehran: Iran's Chief of the Islamic Republic's armed forces Major General Mohammad Bagheri was reportedly killed in the Israeli strikes, claimed local media reports. However, there is no official confirmation in this regard.
"It is likely that the Iranian chief of staff and senior nuclear scientists were eliminated in the initial strike," an Israeli official told global news agency AFP. Earlier reports also surfaced that the head of the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Maj Gen Hossein Salami, was killed in an Israeli strike.
Israel launched "preemptive strikes" against Iran targeting its capital in the early hours of Friday. The strikes reportedly targeted Iran's nuclear program.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Israel of "severe punishment," as the state-run IRNA news agency confirmed top military officials and scientists had been killed in the attack.
Air-raid sirens preventatively rang out in Israel.
The attack comes as tensions have reached new heights over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program.
The strikes were launched on Iran a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency for the first time in 20 years accused Tehran of not complying with its commitment to international nuclear safeguards.
Israel for years has warned it will not allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon. However, Iran has maintainaed that it doesn't want nuclear weapons, though officials there have repeatedly warned that the could could build them.
