Iran: Unprepared, Defenseless, and Under Attack

Israel’s June 13 decapitation attacks against senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leaders and nuclear scientists – coupled with precision strikes on multiple nuclear facilities – demonstrate Iran’s persistent inability to learn from its failures in Lebanon and Syria over the past year. The Iranian regime remains unprepared, defenseless, and under attack, and a defiant message to the Iranian nation in the immediate aftermath of the attacks by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is not likely to change these facts. 

• June 13: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated Mashregh News confirmed the assassination of the IRGC chief commander, Major General Hossein Salami. 

• June 13: Centrist Asr-e Iran reported Major General Gholam Ali Rashid, Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters chief, was killed. 

• June 13: IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News confirmed the targeted assassination of the armed forces chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri.  

• June 13: Tasnim News reported nuclear scientists Fereydoon Abbasi and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi were killed in targeted assassinations. 

• June 13: Nour News Agency, which is affiliated with the Supreme National Security Council, reported that IRGC military housing complexes in Tehran’s Mahallati neighborhood were targeted in the Israeli attacks. 

• June 13: Tabnak News, affiliated with Mohsen Rezaei, former IRGC chief commander, broadcast video of a fire at the Martyr Ahmadi-Roshan nuclear facility in Natanz. 

• June 13: In a message to the Iranian nation posted on his official website, and read on live television by a news anchor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed divine retribution against “the Zionist regime” but prudently refrained from blaming the United States for Israel’s conduct: 

• • “The great nation of Iran! In the early morning hours, the Zionist regime used its wicked and bloodstained hands to commit a crime in our dear country and more than ever revealed its evil nature by targeting residential areas. The regime must await a severe punishment. With God’s providence, the mighty hands of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic will not relent. In the enemy’s aggression, several commanders and scientists were martyred. Their deputies and colleagues will take up their duty without hesitation. God willing, the Zionist regime has, through this crime, paved the way for its own bitter and painful fate and will surely face it by God’s will.” 

• June 13: Brigadier General Ali Fadavi, second-in-command of the IRGC, in a televised interview circulated online by IRGC-affiliated Mashregh News, said: 

• • “We will make the wicked of the world and criminal Zionists regret.” 

• June 13: Tasnim News Agency reported that, in addition to nuclear scientists Abbasi and Tehranchi, four more nuclear scientists were killed: Abdolhamid Minouchehr and Ahmad Reza Zolfaqari, professors at Shahid Beheshti University; Amir-Hossein Feqhi, Iran Nuclear Science and Research Institute director; and “Motallebizadeh,” whose first name and institutional affiliation remains unknown. 

• June 13: Tabnak News Agency further reported a ballistic missile silo in Piranshahr in western Iran was targeted by Israel. 

• June 13: Nour News reported that Admiral Ali Shamkhani, former Supreme National Security Council secretary, who was severely wounded in the Israeli attacks, is hospitalized and in “critical condition.”  

• June 13: Majid Farshi, East Azerbaijan province crisis management director, was quoted by reformist Entekhab News Agency as saying:  

• • “Martyr Karimi garrison in Saeid-Abad, Al-Zahra garrison in Amand, and the radar site on Sar-Doroud were attacked by Israel.” 

• June 13: Mashregh News, citing Israeli television, reported “hundreds of Iranian drones launched against Israel.”  

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