By World Israel News Staff

The chief of Iran’s military was killed in an Israeli airstrike overnight, the IDF announced Tuesday morning, just days after his predecessor was killed during the launch of Israel’s Operation Rising Lion.

The strike was carried out on a manned command post in central Iran overnight, an Israeli military spokesperson said, after precised intelligence information was obtained by the army’s Intelligence Directorate regarding the location of Ali Shadmani, the Iranian Chief of War Staff.

Shadmani, a close associate of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was the most senior military commander in Iran, following the assassination of his predecessor, Alam Ali Rashid, just days earlier.

Shadmani also served as commander of the Iranian Armed Forces’ Emergency Command. At the time of his assassination, Shadmani commanded both the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian army.

“In his various roles, he directly influenced Iran’s targeting strategies against the State of Israel,” the IDF said.

Before his predecessor’s assassination, Shadmani served as deputy commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Emergency Command and as head of the Operations Division of the Iranian General Staff.

“Shadmani’s elimination adds to a series of targeted killings of Iran’s most senior military leadership and constitutes another blow to the command chain of the Iranian armed forces,” the IDF spokesperson’s office said.

The killing of Shadmani marks the latest in a string of high-profile assassinations of top Iranian commanders.

At the outset of the Israeli preemptive strikes early Friday morning, IDF forces killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Maj.-Gen. Hossein Salami, along with the commander of the IRGC’s air units, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, and the IRCG’s drone operations chief.

Esmail Qaani, commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force – which is responsible for the IRGC’s operations outside of Iran – was also killed early in the Israeli operation.