Israel's strikes on Iran are unprecedented.
The attacks have placed the Middle East on the brink of full-scale war between nation-states: a situation world leaders have dreaded since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
It is also a situation that Iran fears, because Israel has shown itself capable and willing to assassinate the regime's top leaders.
Thus far, many of the regime's highest military, intelligence and security leaders have been killed. They are:
Killed: Major General Mohammad Bagheri
Bagheri was the commander-in-chief of the Iranian armed forces, and his power was second only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He had been in the role since 2016.
Bagheri had a background in military intelligence before being named the country's military chief eight years ago.
His military career began during the Iran-Iraq War in 1980. Bagheri has reportedly been replaced by Abdolrahim Mousavi.
The IDF reported Bagheri was killed overnight on June 12.
Killed: General Hossein Salami
Salami was the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a position he had held since 2019.
Like Bagheri, Salami's military career began during the Iran-Iraq War in 1980.
He became deputy commander in 2009, before assuming the top job a decade later.
According to Iranian state media, Mohammad Pakpour has been appointed as his successor as commander-in-chief.
The IDF reported Salami was killed overnight, June 12.
Killed: General Gholamali Rashid
Rashid was the boss of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's headquarters, responsible for joint military exercises.
He was the former deputy commander-in-chief of the Iranian armed forces.
Iranian state media reports Ali Shadmani has been appointed the new leader.
The IDF reported Rashid was killed overnight, June 12.
Killed: General Amir Ali Hajizadeh
Hajizadeh was the head of Iran's airspace and oversaw its missile program.
According to Israel Defense Forces, Hajizadeh orchestrated two separate missile attacks on Israel last year.
In addition, Iran confirmed on Saturday that two other senior military personnel had been killed in the
IDF reported him as eliminated on June 13.
Killed: General Gholamreza Mehrabi
Mehrabi was the Iranian armed force's deputy intelligence chief.
His death was reported by the NY times.
Killed: General Mehdi Rabbani
Rabbani was deputy commander of operations for the armed forces.
His death was reported by the NY times.
Unknown: Ali Shamkhani
Shamkhani is one of Iran's most influential politicians and an adviser to the ayatollah.
Shamkhani had been part of critical nuclear talks with the US, overseeing a committee appointed by Iran's Supreme Leader to lead the negotiations.
He served with Iran's navy before holding the post of Minister of the Revolutionary Guards in 1988. He went on to become Minister of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics from 1997 to 2005.
His condition is currently unknown, though he was critically injured in the Israeli strikes.
His death was reported by US media but refuted by Iranian authorities.
Killed: Fereydoun Abbasi
Two of the country's top nuclear scientists were also killed during the strikes on Friday.
Abbasi was the boss of the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency between 2011 and 2013.
He later went on to become a member of parliament.
Abbasi was sanctioned by the UN Security Council in 2007 for his role in developing nuclear weapon delivery systems, and later by countries including Australia.
He survived an assassination attempt driving to work in 2010 when a man on a motorbike attached a bomb to the window of his car — an attack Tehran blamed on Israeli intelligence.
IDF reported he died on June 13.
Killed: Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi
Tehranchi was a theoretical physicist and the president of the Islamic Azad University.
According to a US government-funded NGO, Iran Watch, Tehranchi once supervised an Iranian program to develop nuclear weapons, which included explosive testing, and continued to work for the regime.
IDF reported he died on June 13.
Killed: General Davood Sheikhian
Sheikhian was the commander of the air defence system of the IRGC Aerospace Force.
He was reported as eliminated by IDF on June 13.
Killed: General Khosrow Hassani
Hassani was the deputy intelligence chief of the aerospace unit.
His death was reported by Iranian media.
Killed: Brigadier General Mohammad Kazemi
Kazemi was the intelligence chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
Kazemi was an Iranian intelligence officer and brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
He was appointed as the commander of the IRGC's Intelligence Organization in 2022.
His death was reported by Iranian media.
Killed: Hassan Mohaqiq
Mohaqiq was the deputy head of intelligence of Iran's Revolutionary Guard working under General Kazemi.
His death was reported by Iranian media.
Alive: Abdolrahim Mousavi
Mousavi served as Iran's chief of the general staff and commander-in-chief of Islamic Republic of Iran Army from 2017 to 2025.
He was second-in-command of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army from 2008 to 2016.
Alive: Mohammad Pakpour
Pakpour is a veteran who was involved with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
He was deployed in the Kurdistan Province.
He also served in the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War.
Pakpour has a PhD in political geography.
On June 12, just after midnight local time, Israel launched a massive air campaign targeting Iran's nuclear program and regime leadership.
The purpose of Operation Rising Lion — as Israel calls it — was to "degrade, destroy, and remove [the] threat" of the potential weaponisation of Iran's nuclear capability.
It came hours after the United Nations released a damning report on Iran's nuclear program, stating the country was in breach of its obligations. The report highlighted "serious and growing concerns since at least 2019 that Iran had failed to cooperate fully with the UN agency's inspectors".
Israel sees Iran's nuclear ambitions as nothing less than an existential threat. Iran, for its part, has denied that its nuclear program is trying to craft weapons.
The first indications of the Israeli operation were the hum, and then the boom, of swarms of tiny drones laden with explosives that Israeli intelligence operatives had pre-positioned within the country.
The drones targeted Iran's air defence radar systems and sowed chaos. Within minutes, more than 200 IDF military aircraft — including F-35 stealth fighters — bombed more than 100 military and nuclear sites across the country.
The air campaign is one of the largest in the Middle East since the Iraq War. The start of Operation Rising Lion caught Iran's regime completely by surprise. Many top members of the regime were at their homes in the suburbs of Tehran, the country's capital, when the strikes hit.
The IDF killed prominent members of Iran's nuclear research network: five senior nuclear scientists from Shahid Beheshti University on June 12 and 13.
According to United States officials, Israel had plans to kill Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Israeli plan to kill Khamenei was reportedly vetoed by President Donald Trump.
Iran has responded with large-scale air attacks on Israel in return. Israel's state-of-the-art air defence system has managed to intercept the majority of those attacks, but some have still made it through.
World leaders have called for calm. The question keeping the world on edge now is: just how far are Israel and Iran willing to go now that they've exchanged such large-scale blows?
