Iran's army chief threatens 'decisive' retaliation for Ali Larijani's death and launches missiles into Israel
Iran's army chief, Amir Hatami, has threatened to launch a “decisive” retaliation for the killing of security chief Ali Larijani in an Israeli airstrike.
“At the right time and place, a decisive, deterrent and remorseful response will be given to criminal America and the bloodthirsty Zionist regime,” Hatami said in a statement quoted by the BBC.
He adds that Larijani and other martyrs “will be avenged.”
Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a force separate from the army, has already fired rockets into central Israel “in retaliation” for Larijani's death, AFP news agency reports.
Larijani is the most senior Iranian official killed since Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
A man and a woman in their 70s were killed during an Iranian missile attack on the city of Ramat Gan, a spokesman for Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA) said.
Members of rescue teams were dispatched to various locations hit by rockets just after midnight in Tel Aviv, MDA spokesman Zaki Heller said.
At two other sites of the incident, the MDA said it treated two people with shrapnel injuries, along with several victims of anxiety and injured civilians on their way to shelters.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council confirmed on Tuesday evening the death of its head, Ali Larijani, a pillar of Iranian power, whom Israel had previously announced had killed him, AFP reports.
Ali Larijani “received the sweet grace of martyrdom,” the Council said in a statement, adding that another of its officials, as well as Ali Larijani's son and several bodyguards, were also killed “at dawn,” according to Agerpres.
The funerals of Ali Larijani, as well as General Gholamreza Soleimani, who headed the Basij paramilitary organization, also killed by Israel on Tuesday morning, will be held on Wednesday starting at 10:30 GMT in central Tehran, along with funeral ceremonies for servicemen from the frigate sunk by the United States on March 4 off the coast of the island state of Sri Lanka, the Fars and Tasnim news agencies said.
