One-by-one: How Iran’s highest commander Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lost its top commanders and why its axis is uprooting world news

In the debris of Israel’s Ariel Blitz, a figure over Tehran, a figure cut the 86-year-old supreme leader of Iran, a rapidly isolated silhouette-Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, who once had suddenly made the steel spine of his rule, spy-samasters and strategists. Over a period of hours, Iran’s most aristocratic military and intelligence commanders were erased, the most devastating blow under the leadership of the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979. Deaths were not just symbolic – they were surgical. Head of revolutionary guards. Architect of Iran’s missile program. Head of military intelligence. Coordinator of National Defense. Went. One after the other, Khameni’s advisor has been abolished the origin of the ring, shattering the command-end-control structure created in three decades.
The night guard fell

Last Friday’s midnight began. Accurate-directed Israeli missiles killed the goals of high-value in and around Tehran-underground bunkers, communication nodes, airbase-and with them, with men who commanded him. Major General Hosain Salute, Commander-in-Chief of Guards, was among the first confirmed dead. For a long time, the loyalty of Khameni, the salutes, had more than a military officer; He was the promoter, strategist and ideological spear of the supreme leader. Behind him, Amir Ali Hajizadeh- the brain behind Iran’s drone and missile arsenal was terminated in a secondary strike, as well as with major duties, while he called to plan retaliation. Intelligence chief Mohammad Kazmi left the next. Then General Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces and Commander General Gholam Ali Rashid of joint military operations died. By Saturday morning, the upper level of Iran’s warfighting architecture was reduced. In military words, it was a blitz of breathtaking efficacy. From political point of view, it was an earthquake.
Separation of supreme leader
Khamenei has always ruled through the concentrated circles of loyalty – Clacks, Guardman, Intelligence Officers. His loyalty was never in question; His effectiveness was tested through wars, rebellions and murders, which retained the Islamic Republic. Now, that circle is broken. Sources familiar with the functioning of the decision-making of Khameni say that the internal circle was never institutional-it was a relationship. These were not just officers, they were comrades. Caught revolutions with the men who fought with those men who fought. Their disadvantage is not only strategic – it is deeply individual. What lives is a small, more delicate tool. His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has increased in height in the last two decades, and now emerges as a real coordinator of both policy and security. A cleric without a formal title, but behind the back-to-back clout, Mojtaba is seen both as the Chief-of-Staff in successor-in-wetting and practice by the inner sources. The old lieutenant who live veterans like Ali Akbar Velayati and Kamal Kharaji, domestic fixers like Mohammad Golpegani – now find themselves holding the last thread of a huge strength structure once.
List of friendly nations
Kasem Solimani
- Role: Commander, IRGC QUDS Force
- date of death: January 3, 2020
- Context: An American drone in Baghdad killed by strike
- Effect: Architects of Iran’s regional proxy wars; His death destroyed the harmony of Iran’s foreign operation.
Mohsin Fakhrizadeh
- Role: Head of Iran’s nuclear weapon program
- date of death: 27 November, 2020
- Context: Probably murdered in Absard near Tehran by Israeli Intelligence
- Effect: Scientific foundation of Iran’s atomic ambitions; Huge intelligence failure and psychological blow.
Mohammad Hedgei
- Role: Deputy Commander, IRGC QUDS Force
- date of death: April 18, 2021
- Context: Suddenly died in unclear conditions amid stress with Israel
- Effect: Hizbullah was in charge of missile operations; His death weakened Iran’s exact strategy.
Ali Shamkhani
- Role: Head of former National Security Council; Senior advisor to silence
- date of death: June 14, 2025
- Context: Injuries were victims of injuries after Israeli’s air strike in Tehran
- Effect: Long -time military and diplomatic strategists; Major bridges between clerical leadership and army.
Hosain salute
- Role: Commander-in-Chief, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
- date of death: June 13, 2025
- Context: Tehran killed in Israeli airstrikes at military sites
- Effect: Top military commander; Central figure in both external conflict and domestic repression.
Amir Ali Hajizadeh
- Role: Commander, IRGC Aerospace Force
- date of death: June 14, 2025
- Context: Surrenders were killed in a second wave of Israeli attacks while planning retaliation
- Effect: Architects of Iran’s missile and drone arsenal; His death influenced Iran’s anti -counterpart capabilities.
Mohammad Bagheri
- Role: Head of Staff, Iranian Armed Forces
- date of death: June 13, 2025
- Context: Israeli died in accurate attacks
- Effect: Top military planners maintain both IRGC and traditional army operations; Damage broke national defense integration.
Gholam Ali Rashid
- Role: Commander, Khatam al-Anibia Central Headquarters (Joint Military Operations)
- date of death: June 13, 2025
- Context: Killed during the first wave of Israeli attacks
- Effect: Oversa Strategic Military Planning; Significant disadvantages for war coordination.
Mohammad Kazmi
- Role: IRGC Intelligence Organization Head
- date of death: June 13, 2025
- Context: He died in Israeli strike
- Effect: Iran’s top spymaster; Responsible for internal security and counter -protests.
Ghalamereza Mehrabi
- Role: Deputy Head of Intelligence, Iranian General Staff
- date of death: June 13, 2025
- Context: Tehran dead in coordinated Israeli targeting of military compounds
- Effect: Major military intelligence officials oversee the battlefield monitoring and analysis.
Hassan Nasrallah (Non-Irani, major regional partner)
- Role: General Secretary, Hizbullah
- date of death: September 2024
- Context: Killed in Israeli airstrikes in Beirut
- Effect: Strategic proxy and preventive force against Israel; His death destroyed Iran’s first response prevention in Lebanon.
Bashar Al Assad (Non-Irani, Strategic Partner)
- Role: Syrian president
- date of death: December 2024 (Uprooted and later killed by rebel forces)
- Context: The civil war collapsed after years; Tehran failed to keep him in power
- Effect: Fall of Iran’s military foothills in Syria; Weapons and logistics pipelines for Hizbullah.
And the disadvantage of Khamenei is beyond the boundaries of Iran. Hizbullah leader Hasan Nasrallah, Long Tehran’s regional Ika and some true foreign confidant of Khameni, were killed in the strike last September. Bashar al-Assad of Syria departed for years from Iranian guns and gold-was out of rebellious rebellion in the sixth. The famous “axis of resistance” now lies in pieces, with its anchor in Lebanon and Damascus, and its leaders are shaken in Tehran. With Hizbullah being weak and Syria being uncertain, Iran’s preventive compromise has been severely compromised. It is scattered behind its screen, its supply lines are interrupted, and many theaters have the ability to move forward. For Israel, this is a strategic victory. For the region, it increases an actress of an acting Iran acting unexpectedly.
what comes next?
In Tehran, the government has tried to project continuity. Missile Salvos has been fired at Israel’s goals. The speeches of vengeance have filled the state’s television. But behind the closed doors, the regime is scrambling. The new commanders lack the experience of their predecessors. The intelligence system is strayed. The regular army traditionally sidelined by the regular guards may be asked to take steps to complicate the military chain of the command. And all of this is unpublished in the war, the figure of Mojtaba, yet now the crisis is central for management. For silence, the moment exists. He has always given priority to governance existence above all – on ideology, on diplomacy, economy. That calculus has not changed. But with the departure of their most trusted men, the execution of that existence strategy is no longer a guarantee. As an Iranian internal source said, “He is alert. But he is still alone.” And in the Middle East chess, there is no lonely class than Tehran when the generals go away, the friendly nations are dead, and the war drums are getting faster.