Iran confirms the death of its intelligence chief

Iran has confirmed the death of Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, the third top Iranian official killed by Israel in about 24 hours.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told Al Jazeera that recent killings would not destabilize his country’s leadership.
“The cowardly assassination of my dear colleagues Esmaeil Khatib, Ali Larijani, and Aziz Nasirzadeh, alongside some of their family members and accompanying team, has left us in deep mourning,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X, referring as well to the head of Iran’s National Security Council and its defense minister, both killed in Israeli strikes in the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran that broke out on February 28.
Iran launched missile attacks at Israel overnight in retaliation for the killing of two other high-ranking officials.
Israel also struck Lebanon’s capital of Beirut overnight, killing 10 people. Israel’s military said it was targeting the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which started firing rockets at Israel after the Iran war began.
Health authorities have reported about 1,300 killed in Iran, 968 in Lebanon and 16 in Israel since the war began on Feb. 28. U.S. Central Command has said 13 U.S. service members have been killed and eight severely injured. Several Gulf Arab countries have also reported lower numbers of deaths.