Iran confirms six nuclear scientists killed in Israeli strikes

Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that six nuclear scientists were killed in the Israeli strikes under Operation Rising Lion. 

Abdulhamid Minouchehr, Ahmadreza Zolfaghari, Seyyed Amirhossein Faqhi, Motlabizadeh, Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi and Fereydoun Abbasi were among those killed in the Israeli attacks.

“The Zionist regime showed that … it has come to war against our scientists using the tool of terror,” Tasnim News stated on X.

Top figures in Iran’s military leadership were also killed , including Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Gen Mohammad Bagheri and  Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Major General Hossein Salami, top figures in Iran’s military leadership.

Other prominent figures confirmed dead include:

Gholam Ali Rashid, commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters and a key strategist behind “Operation True Promise.”

Additionally, Ali Shamkhani, a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was calso assassinated in the Israeli strikes on Tehran, according to Iran’s state-run Nour News.

According to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Israel's attacks on Iran constitute a "unilateral action" in which the United States played no part. Rubio warned Tehran to refrain from retaliating against American interests or personnel stationed in the region.

US officials although did not confirm whether their country will not provide air refueling and logistic support to Israel.