Tehran [Iran], April 7: Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that the head of its intelligence department, Major General Majid Khademi, was killed on Monday as Iran attacked greater Tel Aviv and Washington's deadline loomed.
Later, Israel's military reported the death of another senior military figure, the head of a special unit of the IRGC's Quds Force, saying he was killed in Tehran on Sunday.
The Quds Force carries out covert operations abroad. Commander Asghar Bagheri was involved in attacks targeting Israeli and US individuals worldwide, the military said in a statement.
The news came as at least 19 people were killed and 20 more injured in US and Israeli airstrikes near Tehran, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported on Monday.
The districts of Shahriar and Baharestan were bombed close to the Iranian capital, the report said. Two three-storey buildings were completely destroyed in a residential area south-west of the capital, IRNA reported, citing the local fire brigade. Several bodies were recovered from the rubble.
The Tasnim news agency reported that six children under the age of 10 were killed in the attacks - three girls and three boys. Iran also reported a fresh attack on gas facilities in the Gulf. The Fars news agency said there had been a series of blasts near a refinery in the coastal town of Asaluyeh, the heart of the Iranian gas industry.
Later, Tasnim reported further strikes targeting a petrochemical complex in the town of Marvdasht, which is around 45 kilometres north-east of the city of Shiraz. The strikes caused a fire, but this has been brought under control, it said.
Tehran criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for failing to adequately condemn the repeated US and Israeli attacks near Iran's sole nuclear power plant in Bushehr.
Writing to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, Iran's Atomic Energy Organization chief Mohammad Eslami said the lack of condemnation could encourage the "aggressors" to repeat these attacks, according to a report by IRNA. The renowned Sharif University of Technology in Tehran was bombed, IRNA reported, in a strike that comes days after another of the nation's leading universities was also hit in the capital.
Paramedics in Israel meanwhile, said that several missiles had struck the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. Israeli TV channel N12 reported 30 impact sites, with at least two injured.
As Iran continued to attack its Gulf neighbours including Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, one person was injured by debris from a missile that had been shot down following an attack on an industrial facility, the city's media office said.
Source: Qatar Tribune
