The IDF on Tuesday assassinated the replacement Iranian Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters commander Maj.-Gen. Ali Shademani only days after it assassinated his predecessor, Gholam Ali Rashid, this past Friday.
Shademani's position made him Iran's "War-Time Chief of Staff, the most senior military commander, and the closest figure to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei," the IDF stated.
Khatam al-Anbiya is "responsible for managing combat operations and approving Iran’s firepower plans. In his various roles, he directly influenced Iran’s operational plans targeting the State of Israel," they added.
Israel's success in killing Shademani so soon after its initial successes in killing dozens of Iranian commanders on the first day of the current Israel-Iran war showed that despite the Islamic Republic trying to adjust and outfox Jerusalem, that the Jewish state still has an overwhelming upper hand in intelligence and war capabilities.
Iran has already had top officials get rid of their cellphones in order to avoid fears of being tracked that way by Israel.
Foreign reports have said that the Mossad and IDF intelligence used these and other techniques to track top Iranian commanders movements leading up to the launching of the war this past Friday.
Despite Iranian adjustments, the IDF and the Mossad seem to have sufficient assets and strategies in place to continue to kill top Iranian commanders regardless of where they are hiding and how they try to hide themselves.
Prior to being appointed Iran's new Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters commander over the weekend, Shademani, who was close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been deputy chief of all emergency national defense operations and chief of military operations.
Other Iranian military leaders killed since Operation Rising Lion began
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)'s commander Maj.-Gen. Hossein Salami and Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Bagheri were killed in the opening strike of Israel's Operation Rising Lion early Friday morning.
The IDF later confirmed the killing of IRGC air force commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, along with other senior IRGC air force officials as they met in an underground command center on Friday. This included IRGC’s UAV Force commander, Taher-pour, and IRGC aerial command chief, Davoud Shaykhian.
IRGC Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani was later confirmed as having been killed in the strikes.