Israeli army says killed three senior commanders in Iran

Jerusalem, June 21 (IANS) The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said in statements on Saturday that it had killed three senior commanders in Iran overnight.

One of them was Saeed Izadi, the commander of the Palestine Corps in the Quds Force, a branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to the IDF.

Izadi, a key coordinator between Iran and Hamas, was killed in an air strike in Iran's Qom province, the IDF said.

"Izadi was responsible for increasing the financial funding from Iran to Hamas for activities against Israel," the statement read.

"He was also a main orchestrator of the October 7th massacre and one of the few people who knew about it in advance."

The IDF said in a separate statement that its air force also killed Behnam Shahriyari, commander of the Quds Force's weapons transfer unit in the IRGC, in western Iran.

The statement said that Shahriyari was responsible for "weapons transfers from Iran to its proxies" across the Middle East.

"Shahriyari commanded the transfer of hundreds of millions of US dollars annually to various terrorist organisations, utilising a network of shell companies, money changers, and couriers," the statement read.

Shahriyari was eliminated more than 1,000 km from Israel while travelling in western Iran. His elimination represents a severe blow to the ability of the terrorist organisations surrounding Israel to regroup and strengthen after being heavily damaged by the IDF during the war.

Earlier on Saturday, the IDF said that its air force had struck and killed Aminpour Joudaki in southwestern Iran. Joudaki was the commander of the second unmanned aerial vehicle brigade of the IRGC Air Force.

The statement claimed that as part of his role, he had advanced hundreds of drone attacks against Israeli territory from the area of Ahvaz in southwestern Iran, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, Israeli fighter jets had struck missile storage and launch facilities in central Iran, according to a separate IDF statement on Saturday.

The strike was carried out shortly after a barrage of five missiles was fired from Iran towards central Israel, with no casualties reported.

There was no confirmation from the IRGC on the killing of the commanders.

--IANS

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