Airstrikes by the Israeli military have killed Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Iran’s state TV IRINN reports

Bagheri was Iran’s highest-ranking military officer.

He was the second senior figure known to have been killed by Israel’s unprecedented attack on Iran in the early hours of Friday.

Multiple Iranian state media outlets had reported earlier that General Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in Israel’s overnight strikes.

DAILY POST reports that Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes on Iran, declaring an emergency as it braces up for retaliation.

Israeli military said a “pre-emptive, precise, combined offensive based on high-quality intelligence” had been launched – called Operation Rising Lion.