NewzVille International
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz announced on Wednesday that they eliminated Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib in a strike overnight. However, Iran has not confirmed Khatib’s death.
While announcing Khatib’s death, Katz said that “significant surprises are expected throughout this day on all the fronts,” without elaborating.
Khatib was a Shiite cleric who worked in a variety of positions in Iran’s judiciary and the Intelligence Ministry. He served in the Revolutionary Guard in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
Katz said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given the military a free hand to eliminate any other senior Iranian official being targeted without taking additional approvals.
This would be the third high-profile assassination of an Iranian leader in two days. On Tuesday, Israel eliminated Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, and Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ all-volunteer Basij force.
