The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Sunday (local time) that Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, had been killed in strikes launched on Saturday.
Sharing the post on X, the IDF wrote: “ELIMINATED: Abdolrahim Mousavi, Iran’s Chief of Staff,” adding that the IDF also killed seven members of Iran’s top security leadership in Tehran, along with 40 senior commanders.
Here’s everything you need to know about Abdolrahim Mousavi
According to a BBC News report, Mousavi, who was born in Qom in 1955, was a veteran of the Islamic Republic’s armed forces. He joined the Iranian army in 1979 and began his training at the Army Officers’ College. Mousavi had a doctorate in defense from the National Defense University. During the Iran-Iraq War, he served in artillery units in western Kurdistan and southwestern Khuzestan and participated in key operations including Valfajr 4 and 9, Beit al-Maqdis 5, Qader and Nasr. He is considered to have played a significant role in the conflict and is widely described as a war hero.
After the Iran-Iraq War, Mousavi steadily rose through the ranks of the Iranian army. In subsequent years, he served as President of the Imam Ali Officers’ University, Commander of the Army’s North Eastern Command (Nazaja) and Deputy Director of Training and Planning for the Land Forces.
Between 2005 and 2008, he served as Chief of the Army General Staff. He later became Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Army, a position he held until 2016. He then served as Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces until 2017, when he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army (Artesh), a role he held for eight years.
Once, during a television interview, Mousavi discussed his personal life and said that his father owned a textile factory where he first started working at the age of six. Married at 23 with two sons, Mousavi revealed that he holds a football referee certificate and has some coaching experience.
At the start of his tenure as army chief, Mousavi stated: “Our goal and hope today is to remove and destroy the Zionist regime. He replaced Mohammad Baqeri, who was killed in an Israeli attack in June last year.”
US-Israeli strikes target Iranian sites
The United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran, targeting key sites in Tehran, following weeks of threats from US President Donald Trump after Iran refused to give up its nuclear program and said it was not seeking nuclear weapons. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said: “A short time ago, the US military began major combat operations in Iran. Our goal is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”
A joint US-Israeli operation also killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was in his office in the early hours of Saturday when Israeli forces struck his compound in Tehran.
Tensions have now risen in Iran and beyond in the Middle East region, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian declaring that Tehran will avenge the death of its supreme leader.
