Tel Aviv, 18 March (H.S.): Israel's military has pledged to pursue and eliminate Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's newly appointed supreme leader, following the confirmed killing of national security chief Ali Larijani in a precision airstrike near Tehran.

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin declared that despite Mojtaba Khamenei's elusive public profile since his February 28 appointment—succeeding his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—Israeli intelligence will track and neutralize him.

This escalation comes amid a three-week-old regional war ignited by U.S.-Israeli strikes that felled the elder Khamenei, prompting Iranian missile barrages and the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Larijani's demise as a decapitation of Iran's gang of gangsters, specifically targeting the Revolutionary Guards' leadership that orchestrates regional aggression.

Larijani, aged 68 and a pivotal architect of Tehran's defense and proxy strategies, perished alongside his son, aides, and Basij paramilitary commander Gholamreza Soleimani in overnight operations.

The strikes underscore Israel's doctrine of systematically targeting adversarial command structures, a tactic refined since the 2023 Hamas incursions.

Iranian state media eventually acknowledged Larijani's martyrdom, releasing an undated tribute note from him honoring sailors lost to a U.S. submarine attack, while crowds rallied in Tehran amid subdued Nowruz festivities punctuated by air defenses.

Defense Minister Israel Katz framed the operations as severing the head of the octopus, vowing relentless pressure to foster internal upheaval in Iran.

Tehran, through parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, insisted the Hormuz blockade persists, exacerbating global oil surges as allies rebuff U.S. President Donald Trump's naval escort appeals.

Lebanon bears the brunt of spillover, with over a million displaced, 886 killed since March 2, and Israeli ground incursions countering Hezbollah strikes. Explosions rocked Gulf capitals to Baghdad Tuesday, as a U.S. counterterrorism official resigned protesting the war's justification.

This sequence of high-profile eliminations signals Israel's unyielding campaign to dismantle Iran's axis, potentially catalyzing regime fracture as Netanyahu urges persistence for Iranian self-determination.

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar