Iran on Wednesday confirmed that Israeli strikes on Tehran killed Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, and Israel itself claimed one of its strikes took the life of Gholam Reza Soleimanu, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s volunteer Basij Force. 

Several more junior officials, including Larijani’s son Morteza Larijani were also killed during the attack, reports said.

Both men were killed during an intense night of bombing of Tehran and nearby military installations, according to press reports. 

Iran responded to the killings with a large volley of retaliatory strikes on at least 100 sites in Isreal as well as U.S. military assets in the region. There were no immediate casualty reports available from the Iranian strikes. 

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi said that the Israeli and U.S. strategy of targeting individual targets would continue to be ineffective. 

“The presence or absence of a single individual does not affect this structure,” he said.