Iran’s brutal anti-protest enforcer is dead, Israel says — as Tehran launches fresh crackdown on dissent

Israel has claimed to have killed Iran’s security chief responsible for suppressing protests in its latest airstrikes, as the regime launched a fresh crackdown on dissent in the Islamic Republic.

Israel’s military announced on Tuesday it had killed Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that is responsible for suppressing protests in the country.

Soleimani, believed to be 61 or 62, was killed in an airstrike on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Israel claims it has killed Gholamreza Soleimani, Iran’s security chief responsible for suppressing protests, in its latest airstrikes. AFP via Getty Images

It said he had acted as the Basij commander for six years, overseeing the Iranian regime’s suppression of dissent and mass arrests of protesters.

Iran has not confirmed the death of Soleimani, who would be one of the most senior Iranian officials to have been killed since Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the early days of the war.

Security forces in Iran have arrested suspected collaborators with foreign governments, while threatening would-be protesters with death to try to quell an uprising.

Armed regime thugs on motorcycles have been spotted patrolling the streets in the capital Tehran, where residents rarely leave their homes at night for fear of attack, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The men, usually in plainclothes with their faces covered, have also set up security checkpoints across cities in Iran, routinely stopping and searching vehicles.

A shoot-to-kill order is in place, security officials have said in a chilling warning to would-be protesters via state television and text messages.

An Israeli self-propelled howitzer fires rounds toward southern Lebanon from a position in the upper Galilee in northern Israel near the border on Sunday. AFP via Getty Images

Regime opponents were warned they would face “a stronger blow than January 8,” in a text message sent to Iranian mobile-phone users by the Revolutionary Guard over the weekend.

That date was a reference to the recent mass killings of protesters in Iran, which cracked down on widespread unrest at the start of the year.

At least 500 people have been arrested in Iran since the start of the war on Feb. 28, accused of sharing information with international media or enemy forces, the commander of Iran’s police force, Ahmad-Reza Radan, said on Sunday.

Iranian rescue workers search for victims among the rubble following a strike on a residential building, in central Tehran, Iran. Iranian Red Crescent/UPI/Shutterstock Emergency crews search the rubble following a strike on a residential building on Monday in central Tehran, Iran. Getty Images

Many have been detained for taking pictures or videos of sites hit by airstrikes, while others have been accused of being monarchists, a reference to supporters of the exiled son of Iran’s last Shah, Reza Pahlavi.

A mother and her teenage son, accused of celebrating the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei, were detained, according to a US-based group, Human Rights Activists in Iran.

Israel also announced Tuesday that it had killed top Iranian security official Ali Larijani, days after he goaded President Trump in a live interview.

Larijani, head of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, was taken out days after joining Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran on Friday for a rally.

“It’s clear they’re running out of steam,” Larijani told a TV interviewer in reference to Operation Epic Fury. “Trump’s problem is that he doesn’t understand that the Iranian nation is mature and determined.”