Tehran, Iran – Iran has promoted several commanders to the top of its military leadership after Israel killed their predecessors in a series of air attacks.The leadership of Iran’s General Staff of the Armed Forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) has shifted significantly as the country defends against Israeli attacks and launches retaliatory strikes.
Let’s take a look at which commanders were killed, who replaced them, and what this means for the deadly conflict going forward.
How senior were the killed commanders?
Some of Iran’s top military leaders were killed during Israel’s multipronged assault, which started early Friday.
Iran’s highest-ranking military commander, General Mohammad Bagheri, was among the casualties. The veteran of the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s was chief of staff of the armed forces and only answered to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Other members of the General Staff of the Armed Forces were also among the dead, including Deputy for Operations Mehdi Rabani and Deputy for Intelligence Gholamreza Mehrabi. Advertisement
The IRGC also lost a considerable number of top figures in its command chain, chief among them being Hossein Salami, the leader of the force.
The elite aerospace division of the IRGC, which is tasked with developing Iran’s sprawling missile programme, confirmed the killing of eight senior commanders who were convening in an underground bunker in Tehran.
Longtime aerospace chief Ali Akbar Hajizadeh was among those killed, as were commanders leading the missile defence and drone wings of the force.
Who are the new commanders?
Khamenei tapped Abdolrahim Mousavi, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s army, to become the new chief of staff of the armed …