In the early morning hours on June 13, Israeli forces launched a surprise attack aimed at degrading Iran’s offensive military capabilities and preventing the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
In addition to targeting key military bases and nuclear facilities, Israeli forces have directly targeted Iran’s military leadership and the country’s leading nuclear scientists.
Dubbed Operation Rising Lion, the initial Israeli surprise attack has grown into an ongoing offensive military campaign reaching targets throughout Iran.
Within the first day of the operation, Iran had confirmed the deaths of its top three military commanders: Iranian armed forces chief of staff Lt. Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri; Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Lt. Gen. Hossein Salami; and Lt. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, who led the Khatam-al Anbiya central headquarters, which serves as a unified combatant command for Iran’s conventional forces and the IRGC.
Iran has confirmed that Fereydoun Abbasi, a top Iranian nuclear engineer, was also among those killed in the ongoing Israeli operation.
In a June 13 televised address announcing the new military campaign, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes will continue “for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”
Military Leaders
Along with eliminating the top three Iranian military officers, Israeli forces have claimed their strikes have continued to dismantle the Iranian military leadership structure.
Exact casualties are difficult to confirm, but Iranian officials and state media sites have acknowledged that several of their military leaders have been killed.
On June 14, Iran’s state-run PressTV reported Brig. Gens. Gholamreza Mehrabi and Mehdi Rabbani were killed in the initial wave of Israeli strikes in the early morning hours on June 13. The Iranian outlet described Mehrabi as the deputy for intelligence for the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, and Rabbani as the deputy for operations for the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.
Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the IRGC’s aerospace component, was also killed on the first day of the Israeli strikes, according to PressTV.
PressTV, on June 15, reported Brig. Gen. Mohammad Kazemi, who led the IRGC’s main intelligence component, was killed in an Israeli strike alongside his deputy, Mohammad Hassan Mohaghegh. Also killed in the strike was Mohsen Baqeri, whom the Israeli government had identified as a high-ranking intelligence officer working for the IRGC’s Quds Force component.
Smoke rises after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, on June 13, 2025. Israeli forces launched a surprise operation, dubbed “Rising Lion,” aimed at weakening Iran’s military capabilities and preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The strike also targeted Iran’s military leadership, killing several top commanders and nuclear scientists. Vahid Salemi/AP Photo
Nuclear Scientists
Israeli leaders said they cast their surprise attacks on Iran as a preemptive measure to stop the country from obtaining nuclear weapons.
For years, Iranian leader Ali Khamenei has said Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons.
International observers have offered a more mixed assessment of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence has issued annualassessments in recent years, concluding Iran is not currently pursuing nuclear weapons but is continuing to enrich uranium at high purity levels.
In its latest annual threat assessment in March, the U.S. intelligence office wrote that Khamenei “has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003, though pressure has probably built on him to do so.”
Israel, on the other hand, has accused Iran of having resumed a nuclear weapons program by 2011, which has continued in the years since.
Iranian state media have confirmed the deaths of nine nuclear researchers since June 13, including Abbasi.
Those other Iranian nuclear scientists are Abdol-Hamid Minoucher, Mohammad-Mehdi Tehranchi, Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari, Seyed Amir Hossein Feqhi, Mansour Askari, Saide Borji, Akbar Motalebizadeh, and Ali Bakouei Katrimi.
A general view of the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, 180 miles south of Tehran, Iran, on April 9, 2007. The Israeli Air Force bombed Natanz and dozens of other military and nuclear sites overnight on June 13 in a strike aimed at dismantling Iran’s nuclear program. Majid Saeedi/Getty Images