Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has claimed that Iran's security chief, Ali Larijani, was killed in a wave of air strikes on Tehran that also took the lives of other senior Iranian officials.
There was no evidence presented to back up the claim, which if confirmed would represent the highest-profile assassination since the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei on February 28, the first day US and Israeli forces began air strikes on Iran.
Tehran appeared to try and refute the Israeli statement, showing what it said it was a handwritten note by Larijani commemorating Iranian sailors killed in a US attack whose funeral was expected later on March 17. A photo of the note was also posted on Larijani's X account.
The news on Larijani came just after the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed they had killed Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of Iran's paramilitary Basij force, in the same wave of air strikes on Tehran on March 16.
"Yesterday, the IDF targeted & eliminated Gholamreza Soleimani, who operated as commander of the Basij unit for the past 6 years," it said in the claim, made on March 17.
That report has been neither denied nor confirmed by Iranian authorities.
Katz said the two leaders "have joined Khamenei, the head of the annihilation program, along with all those eliminated from the axis of evil in the depths of hell," while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office released a photo of the premier on the phone with the caption: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders the elimination of senior figures in the Iranian regime."
The US-Israeli offensive on Iran, now in its third week, has shown no signs of letting up, with air raid sirens heard in several locations around the Middle East on March 17.
President Donald Trump said the conflict has "wiped out their [Iran's] military in every aspect" and reiterated during a press conference in Washington that the United States will leave the war "pretty much the very near future."
The Israeli military said it was targeting "Iranian regime infrastructure" in its latest wave of strikes across Tehran, as well as at sites it said were related to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which the United States has designated as a terrorist organization.
Meanwhile, Iran has continued to fire missiles and drones at targets around the Middle East, including Israel. The key Strait of Hormuz -- which accounts for about one-fifth of the world's oil transport -- remains largely closed off due to attacks on vessels.
An Iranian drone and rocket attack targeted the US Embassy in Baghdad, according to security officials, one of whom told AFP that "at least one drone" crashed inside the embassy compound.
A new Iranian drone strike also hit the Fujairah oil complex on the United Arab Emirate's east coast, causing a fire but no injuries, local authorities said on March 17. Explosions were reported in Doha, while Qatar said it had intercepted a missile attack.
Trump had called on nations around the globe to help to reopen the vital waterway, but several countries have pushed back on the idea.
Later on March 17, he called that reluctance a "very foolish mistake" and that the United States didn't "need any help actually."
“This is a great test, because we don’t need them, but they should have been there,” Trump added.
Iran's targeting of crude oil and gas producing nations around the Gulf has pushed energy prices up sharply in many countries.
The price of several types of oil jumped around 5 percent again on March 17 over supply concerns.
