Israel says it has dealt double blow to Iranian leadership.

A yoga session in an underground parking garage that serves as a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. The Israeli military on Tuesday again urged residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate north of the Zahrani River, saying it was attacking Hezbollah militants in that region. (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv/The New York Times)

By AARON BOXERMAN, RONEN BERGMAN, FARNAZ FASSIHI and DAVID E. SANGER

Israel said it had dealt double blows to the upper echelons of Iran’s leadership Tuesday, killing Ali Larijani, the head of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, and Brig. Gen. Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of a powerful plainclothes militia aligned with Iran.

The Israeli military said Larijani had been killed in overnight airstrikes near Tehran. A close confidant of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who was killed in at the start of the war Feb. 28, Larijani become Iran’s de facto leader before the ayatollah’s son Mojtaba Khamenei succeeded his father.

The latest killings were announced hours before President Donald Trump lashed out again against NATO allies who had rebuffed his attempts to get involved in the war in Iran. Speaking in the Oval Office, he said the United States did not “need or desire” any help to open the Strait of Hormuz, a key global shipping lane where ships have been attacked, sending oil prices surging and the global economy into a state of uncertainty. “I’m disappointed in NATO,” he said.

A Trump administration official also quit over the Iran war. The official, Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation in a letter that said: “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

Iranian authorities and the country’s state media did not comment on the Israeli announcement of Larijani’s death. But two Iranian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said they believed he and Soleimani had been killed. Later Tuesday, Fars, an Iranian news agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, carried a statement from the Guard confirming Soleimani’s death.

Larijani’s killing would remove an influential pragmatist who was seen as having the clout to negotiate with the United States, and it could embolden even more hard-line Iranian leaders who believe that the Islamic Republic can survive only by doubling down.

Trump, who spoke Tuesday during a White House meeting with the Irish prime minister, said Larijani had a lot of blood on his hands. The president again defended the war effort, asserting the United States had destroyed the Iranian military and the nuclear threat the country posed.

The killing of Larijani renewed questions about Trump’s endgame. He told reporters in the Oval Office that he was not afraid to put U.S. troops on the ground in Iran. When asked about his plans for Iran after the war, Trump responded by praising the damage the attacks have wrought. “Look, if we left right now it would take 10 years for them to rebuild,” he told reporters. “We’re not ready to leave yet, but we’ll be leaving in the near future.”

Asked whether he was concerned that U.S. moves in Iran could commit American forces to a Vietnam-like boondoggle, he said: “I’m really not afraid of that. I’m really not afraid of anything.”

Here’s what else we are covering:

— Resignation: Kent is the first Trump administration official to quit over the Iran war and one of the first to explicitly resign citing a significant policy difference. Trump later told reporters in the Oval Office that Kent was “weak” on security.

— Powerful militia: Soleimani had led the Basij since 2019 and was under U.S. and European sanctions for his role in the violent suppression of Iranian protests. The Basij, estimated to number about 1 million, have played a central role in repressing dissent.

— Tanker attack: A tanker anchored near a port in the United Arab Emirates was hit by a projectile early Tuesday, sustaining minor damage, in the first strike on a ship in and around the Strait of Hormuz in five days, according to United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. At least 17 vessels have been attacked in the region since the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran began.

— Death toll: At least 1,348 civilians in Iran have been killed since the start of the war, Iran’s U.N. representative has told the Security Council. In Lebanon, 912 people have been killed, the health ministry said Tuesday. In Israel, at least 12 people have been killed, authorities said. The Pentagon says that 13 American service members have died since the start of the war.