Which top Iranian commanders, scientists fell in Israel's strikes?

Israel launched a sweeping air offensive against Iran, killing commanders and scientists and bombing nuclear sites in a stated bid to stop it from building an atomic weapon.

In Tehran, Iranian state TV reported that around 60 people, including 20 children, had been killed in an attack on a housing complex, with more strikes reported across the country. Israel said it had attacked more than 150 targets.

Iran called the Israeli air assault "a declaration of war" and fired dozens of missiles at Israel later Friday and Saturday.

US President Donald Trump has lauded Israel's strikes and warned of much worse to come unless Iran quickly accepts the sharp downgrading of its nuclear programme that the US has demanded in talks that had been due to resume on Sunday.

Friday’s strikes killed Iran’s highest-ranking military officer, armed forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri, and the head of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, Iranian media reported.

Below is a list of the commanders and scientists killed:

Mohammad Bagheri: A former IRGC commander, Major General Bagheri was the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces from 2016.

Hossein Salami: He was the commander-in-chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, or IRGC. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appointed Salami, who was born in 1960, as head of the IRGC in 2019.

Gholamali Rashid: Major General Rashid was head of the IRGC's Khatam al Anbia headquarters. He previously served as deputy chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.

Amir Ali Hajizadeh: He was the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Aerospace Force. Israel has identified him as the central figure responsible for directing aerial attacks against its territory.

Ali Shamkhani: He was one of Iran’s most influential politicians and a close confidant of Ayatollah Khamenei. He had been overseeing nuclear talks with the United States as part of a committee named by the supreme leader to direct the negotiations.

Nuclear Scientists

Fereydoun Abbasi: Abbasi, a nuclear scientist, served as head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation from 2011 to 2013.

Mohammad Mehdi Tehranji: He was a theoretical physicist and the president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran.

Iranian news agency also identified four other slain scientists as:

Abdolhamid Minouchehr: holder of a PhD in nuclear engineering, who served as dean of the nuclear engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University and conducted extensive research on improving the efficiency and safety of nuclear plants.

Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari: professor of nuclear engineering at Shahid Beheshti University.

Amir Hossein Faghihi: who belonged to the engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University and previously served as vice president of the AEOI and head of the Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute.

Motallebzadeh: a nuclear scientist who was targeted and killed along with his wife.

Later on Saturday, Israel said it has killed three more Iranian nuclear scientists, bringing to nine the overall number slain in Israel's attack on the Islamic republic.

"Three of the country's nuclear scientists — Ali Bekaei Karimi, Mansour Asgari, and Saeed Borji — were martyred during the Zionist regime's terrorist attacks," the broadcaster said. 

Replacements

Following the deaths of Iran's top military brass, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei swiftly appointed new Revolutionary Guards and armed forces chiefs to replace those killed.

In separate decrees, Khamenei named Major General Mohammad Pakpour to replace Salami as IRGC commander and Major General Abdulrahim Mousavi to replace Mohammad Bagheri as chief of the armed forces general staff.

Major General Ali Shademani was appointed as the commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Headquarters.

Meanwhile, Brigadier General Seyed Majid Mousavi has been appointed as the new commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Aerospace Force.