Masoud Pezeshkian confirms Iran's Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib's killing, calls it 'cowardly assassination'
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Masoud Pezeshkian confirms Iran's Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib's killing, calls it 'cowardly assassination'")
Iran's incumbent Minister of Intelligence Esmail Khatib (C) sits with Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian (C-R) before a speech to members of parliament in the capital Tehran, on August 17, 2024. Photograph: (AFP)
President Pezeshkian confirmed the assassination of Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib in an Israeli airstrike. The strike follows escalating regional conflict and the reported deaths of several high-ranking Iranian officials.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday (March 18) confirmed that Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib had been killed, describing the strike as a “cowardly assassination,” just hours after Israel claimed responsibility for the overnight airstrike in Tehran.
In a post on the social media platform X, Pezeshkian expressed deep grief over the loss, saying the killing of Khatib, along with senior figures Ali Larijani and Aziz Nasirzadeh, as well as members of their families and teams, had plunged the nation into mourning.
Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Khatib had been “eliminated” in a strike carried out late Tuesday. He emphasised that Israel’s military had been given sweeping authority to act against high-ranking Iranian officials considered threats.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorised the IDF to eliminate any senior Iranian official for whom the intelligence and operational circle has been closed, without the need for additional approval," Katz said. “We will continue to thwart and hunt them all down."
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Khatib, who was appointed in August 2021 by then-president Ebrahim Raisi, had led Iran’s intelligence apparatus until his death. Raisi himself was killed in a helicopter crash in 2024. Israel’s statement came just a day after Tehran confirmed that Larijani had also been killed in a separate Israeli strike, along with Brigadier General Gholamreza Soleimani, who headed Iran’s Basij paramilitary force.
The conflict has been intensifying for more than two weeks, following joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 that reportedly killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and ignited a broader regional war.
Disclaimer: WION takes utmost care to accurately and responsibly report ongoing conflicts in West Asia involving Israel, Iran, US, Gulf nations and non-state actors like Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, Islamic State, and others. Claims and counterclaims, disinformation and misinformation are being made online and offline. Given this context, WION cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, social media posts, photos and videos.
