Iran Confirms Killing of Intel Minister in Third Assassination in Two Days

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has confirmed that Israel killed Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib in an overnight attack, marking the third assassination of a high-ranking Iranian official in two days. 
  
The announcement on Wednesday comes hours after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed the Iranian minister had been killed. 
 
Iranian security chief Ali Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij paramilitary force, were also killed in Israeli air strikes on Tuesday. 
   
Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from the occupied West Bank, said Israeli military analysts regarded Khatib as having been a trusted figure close to Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. 
  
Katz also announced that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given the Israeli military standing authorization to eliminate other senior Iranian officials in their sights without case-by-case approval. 
  
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