Executive Summary

A Blood-Soaked Legacy: Profiling the Islamic Republic’s Top Military Brass Killed During the 12-Day War examines twelve senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were killed in Israeli strikes in June 2025. The report documents how these officers shaped and enforced the Islamic Republic’s military and ideological system, which merges domestic repression and foreign aggression into a unified framework of control.

Overview

The report analyzes the structure of the Islamic Republic’s security apparatus and the symbiotic relationship between the clerical leadership and the IRGC. The clerical establishment provides ideological legitimacy, while the IRGC guarantees the regime’s survival through coercion and force. This relationship has produced a system that sustains itself through a combination of propaganda, internal suppression, and external conflict.

Profiles of Key Commanders

Each of the twelve commanders profiled played a major role in advancing this system.

Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, helped plan the 1999 crackdown on student protesters and later authorized lethal force during the 2019 “Bloody November” uprising, which killed more than a thousand Iranians.

Major General Hossein Salami, Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC, oversaw the regime’s ballistic-missile program, directed the downing of Flight PS752, and led the violent suppression of the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom movement.

Major General Gholam Ali Rashid, Commander of the IRGC Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, coordinated military operations in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen, and served as Tehran’s principal strategist in regional conflicts.

Major General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the IRGC Aerospace Force, expanded Iran’s missile and drone programs and facilitated military cooperation with Russia in its war against Ukraine.

Major General Mohammad Kazemi, head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, directed mass arrests, censorship, and surveillance during the 2022 and 2023 protests.

Brigadier General Mohammad Saeed Izadi, commander of the Quds Force’s Palestine Division, managed funding and weapons transfers to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and played a key role in planning the October 7 terror attack on Israel.

Other commanders, including Davoud Sheikhian, Behnam Shahriari, Reza Mozaffarinia, Mehdi Rabbani, and Gholamreza Mehrabi, contributed to missile development, arms smuggling, intelligence coordination, and domestic-security operations. Together, they represented the leadership core of the regime’s apparatus of repression and foreign warfare.

A Recurring Pattern

The report traces a consistent pattern in the Islamic Republic’s response to crises. When confronted by internal dissent or external pressure, the regime relies on the same sequence: propaganda, violent crackdowns, mass arrests, and renewed investment in military and proxy capabilities. Examples include the 1999 student protests, the 2009 Green Movement, the 2019 demonstrations known as “Bloody November,” and the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom movement. Each case was met with large-scale violence at home and expanded aggression abroad.

Following the 12-Day War, this pattern reappeared. The regime carried out mass detentions and deportations, accelerated the use of political trials, and began rebuilding its missile and air-defense networks.

Structural Weaknesses

The deaths of the twelve senior commanders dealt a major blow to the IRGC’s command structure. Their loss disrupted the coordination between the clerical leadership and the military establishment that underpins the regime’s control. The report also highlights the Islamic Republic’s deepening isolation. During the 12-Day War, Tehran received no tangible military support from either Moscow or Beijing, revealing the limited and transactional nature of those alliances. Renewed UN snapback sanctions have further constrained the regime’s economy and reduced its capacity to rebuild its security forces.

The report concludes that the Islamic Republic’s system of governance depends on a small group of ideologically loyal commanders who connect internal repression to external aggression. The deaths of these figures have weakened that structure and exposed its dependence on propaganda to maintain legitimacy. Although the regime continues to project strength through violence and disinformation, the events of the 12-Day War reveal its growing vulnerability and the fragility of the network that sustains its power.