Who in the Iranian leadership has been killed?

Killed: Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei

Iranian State TV has said that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the strikes.

Khamenei was a stalwart of the regime, described by the US president as "one of the most evil people in history".

Born in the city of Mashhad in 1939, and the son of a religious scholar, Khamenei joined the religious opposition movement of Ayatollah Khomeini against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1962.

After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Khamenei became deputy defence minister, and helped organise the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC).

After the death of Khomeini in June 1989, the nation's council of clerics chose Ali Khamenei to be the new supreme leader, even though he had not achieved the required rank among Shia clerics that the constitution required.

The constitution was amended to say the supreme leader had to show Islamic scholarship, allowing Khamenei to be selected.

After coming to power, Khamenei maintained an iron grip on Iran's politics and its armed forces.

Khamenei has consistently taken hard-line stances on the country's foreign affairs, including Iran's long-standing confrontation with the US.

Killed: Ali Shamkhani

Ali Shamkhani, 70, was the secretary of the Iranian Security Council Forces.

Shamkhani, who helped restore ties with Saudi Arabia in 2023, had held defence and security posts since the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled Iran's US-backed monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Shamkhani was a former IRGC Navy chief and army chief.

A top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israel targeted him in last June's war, and initially believed it had killed him.

The secretary of the Supreme National Security Council for the past 10 years, Shamkhani was appointed head of Iran's Defence Council after the June 2025 12-day war with Israel.

Killed: Mohammad Shirazi

Mohammad Shirazi was the head of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's military bureau.

Shirazi headed the military office of Khamenei's since 1989.

He was said to have been responsible for coordination between the regime's senior armed forces commanders and the supreme leader, serving as a key figure at the top of Iran's power structure.

Killed: Mohammad Pakpour

Mohammad Pakpour was the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Pakpour was identified as one of the key thinkers behind what Israel described as Iran's "plan to destroy Israel".

According to the spokesman, he commanded Iran's central military force and oversaw the deployment of strategic fire systems against the State of Israel.

Pakpour also directed and supported Iranian-backed militant organisations overseas.

He was also said to have played a leading role in the violent suppression of Iranian protesters during last month's protests.

Killed: Abdolrahim Mousavi

Mousavi was the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces.

He had been appointed to this post just days before Israel's strikes on Iran in June 2025.

Before that, he was commander-in-chief of the Iranian army from 2017 to 2025.

He had been sanctioned since March 2023 for committing serious human rights abuses in Iran — sanctions to which Australia was a party.

Killed: Aziz Nasirzadeh

Iran's Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh was a former air force commander.

A former deputy chief of staff of the armed forces, Nasirzadeh was believed to be responsible for long-range missile production facilities and weapons systems transferred to Iran's proxy forces.

He is believed to have overseen the SPND organisation, which advances projects in the fields of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Killed: Hossein Jabal Amelian

Hossein Jabal Amelian was head of the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, known by its Persian acronym SPND.

Amelian was described as responsible for developing advanced technologies and weapons for the Iranian regime.

It is believed those included projects related to nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Killed: Reza Mozaffari-Nia

Reza Mozaffari-Nia was the former head of SPND.

Mozaffari-Nia was believed to have played a role in advancing efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

Killed: Saleh Asadi

Saleh Asadi was a senior regime intelligence officer.

Abadi, head of intelligence for Iran's emergency command, was a senior intelligence officer within the general staff.

Asadi was believed to be involved in helping influence Iran's foreign affairs strategy towards Israel and the United States.

Killed: Ali Larijani

Ali Larijani, an Iranian politician, died at the age of 67, according to Iranian media reports. 

Israel's Defence Minister, Israel Katz, confirmed that Larijani was killed in an Israeli strike.

Born in Iraq, Larijani served as a military officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and was the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council from 2025. He also held the position of speaker of the Iranian parliament from 2008 to 2020.

Larijani was considered a key figure in Iran's political landscape.

Killed: Gholamreza Soleimani

Israel also killed Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the volunteer Basij militia, a key component of Iran's domestic security forces.

State TV aired a message reportedly from Soleimani, who the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps later confirmed had been killed, according to the BBC.

Born in 1964, he was a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War and had led the country's most powerful internal security forces for the past six years.

Killed: Esmail Khatib

Iran's intelligence minister, Esmaeil Khatib, was killed in an Israeli strike on March 18. 

A hardliner cleric and politician, he worked in the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's office and was mentored by him before heading the civilian intelligence apparatus in August 2021.