State TV confirms top general was killed alongside defence council during Saturday’s assault
Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Abdolrahim Mousavi, was killed in the joint United States and Israeli strikes on the country, Iranian state television confirmed on Sunday, March 1, 2026, adding a further devastating blow to a military command structure already decimated by Saturday’s assault.
State TV named Mousavi alongside defence minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Mohammad Pakpour, and Defence Council head Ali Shamkhani as having been killed while gathered for a Defence Council meeting during the strikes. The broadcaster said additional names of officials killed during the attacks would be released in due course.
Mousavi, 65, had held the chief of staff position since June 2025, appointed directly by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following the killing of his predecessor, Mohammad Bagheri, in earlier Israeli strikes on Iran. A four-decade military veteran who served on multiple fronts during the Iran-Iraq War and rose through senior army commands over more than 20 years, Mousavi had been sanctioned by the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, and Australia for what those governments described as the use of lethal force against civilian protesters during the 2019 economic demonstrations and the 2022 unrest that followed the death of Mahsa Amini.
His confirmation brings to at least seven the number of senior Iranian security leaders whose deaths have now been formally acknowledged or confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), following a campaign that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as targeting what he called an existential threat posed by Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes.
NewsGhana reported on Saturday that Nasirzadeh and Pakpour were among the first confirmed fatalities of the strike campaign. Sunday’s state television report now closes the loop on the fate of Iran’s top uniformed officer, whose whereabouts had been uncertain since the initial wave of strikes hit Tehran on Saturday morning.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday that his government viewed vengeance against those responsible for the attack as its duty and legitimate right, vowing to fulfil that responsibility with full force. Iran has already launched retaliatory missile strikes targeting Israel and US military installations across the Gulf region.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, addressing an emergency Security Council session, urged maximum restraint and warned that a failure to de-escalate risked a wider regional conflict with severe civilian consequences.
Iran’s military chain of command has been left severely disrupted. Reports from Iran International indicate that coordination between units has broken down in parts of the country, with some commanders and personnel staying away from bases amid fears of further precision strikes on command facilities.
