Israel killed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) General Abbas Nilforoushan during a bombardment in Lebanon’s capital of Beirut on Friday, Iranian media reported on Saturday, as Israel pummels Tehran’s Mideast proxy network.
Nilforoushan, 58, served as the deputy commander for operations in the Guard, Iran’s paramilitary. He oversaw the Guard’s ground forces.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have not confirmed the reports of Nilforoushan’s death. Newsweek reached out to the IDF, Iran’s foreign ministry and Lebanon’s U.S. embassy via email for comment mid-morning.
State-owned newspaper Tehran Times said Nilforushan died in the same strike that killed the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah. Israel’s military previously announced that Nasrallah was killed during Friday’s strikes on Beirut. Hezbollah has also confirmed Nasrallah’s death.
Considered by some as the most charismatic leader in a network of proxies that projected Iran’s power across the Middle East, known as the Axis of Resistance, Nasrallah rarely appeared in public but cultivated a cult-like following with his televised speeches.
Nasrallah had led Hezbollah since 1992 and, with help from the IRGC, oversaw the buildup of a huge arsenal of missiles and its forces outstripped the Lebanese army, becoming a state within a state.
Following reports of Nasrallah’s death, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, “All the Resistance forces in the region stand with and support #Hezbollah.”
Khamenei also called Israeli strikes targeting Lebanon “shortsighted and insane.”
Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for House Affairs during the Obama administration, told Newsweek via text message late Saturday afternoon, “The IRGC has borne direct witness to the destruction of its top two terrorist proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, and could do nothing to stop it. Their impotence in the face of an unprecedented Israeli onslaught should make all Iranian regional proxies tremor at the prospect of being next on the Israeli target list.”
He continued: “The result is that Israel is truly accomplishing its military goals against these threats. It would be therefore wise for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to find a way to leverage these successes into diplomatic gains that solidify Israel’s regional position. Now is the moment, for if we tip into regional war, this new window will close and an opportunity will be lost for Israelis and Arabs alike to have more security.”
Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have been exchanging heavy fire ever since electronic device attacks on Hezbollah last week killed dozens and injured thousands more. Israel is widely thought to have launched last week’s attack, but it has not taken responsibility for it.
Though Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire for 11 months amid Israel’s war with Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah, in Gaza, recent escalations between the two have created concerns of a broader war in the Middle East. Hamas is a part of Iran’s network of proxies.
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has already vowed retribution for the electronic device attacks and the death of Nilforoushan is sure to escalate the situation in the Middle East further.
Without mentioning Israel by name, Pezeshkian posted on X last week that he condemned “the treacherous mass assassination carried out by the terrorist entity through the bombing of communication devices.”
“God is almighty and avenging, and the criminal will surely receive just retribution,” the post added, according to a translation.
Following the Israeli bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus in April, Iran launched ballistic and cruise missiles, and loitering munitions toward Israel in retaliation, which were intercepted.
This showed that Iran’s options for retaliation against Nasrallah’s killing are quite limited, Hamidreza Azizi, a research fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin, previously told Newsweek on Saturday.
Drones wouldn’t work because of the geographical distance so Tehran would have to rely on its more advanced ballistic missiles, which are limited in number, or mobilize its regional proxies in the Axis of Resistance.
“Iran has two choices now. Both are very bad,” Azizi said. “One is to enter into a war. Any move at this moment would trigger massive Israeli response and the chain of actions of reactions that will definitely result in a bigger war, and Israel has made it clear that it is ready for that.”
The other option, Azizi added, would be “to do nothing and just wait for international efforts to stop the war in Gaza and Lebanon, which doesn’t seem to be really effective.” This would see Iran “lose all these kind of fronts that they have been building in the region—from Lebanon to Syria,” Azizi said.
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