Who is Mohammad Bagheri? Iran’s top military commander killed in Israeli strikes was once a student who stormed US Embassy in 1979

Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri (AFP)

Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, Mohammad Bagheri, was killed in Israeli strikes on multiple cities, including Tehran, state media and AFP report.

"It is likely that the Iranian chief of staff and senior nuclear scientists were eliminated in the initial strike," the official spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Who is Mohammad Hossein Bagheri?

He was born around 1958–1960 in Tehran and was a senior military officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), serving as Iran’s top military official. His exact birth year is disputed, some sources, including the U.S. Treasury Department, cite 1960, while others list 1958.

Since 2016, Bagheri held the position of Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran the country’s highest military post. He was promoted to this role on June 28, 2016, replacing Hassan Firouzabadi, who had held the post for 27 years. Prior to that, Bagheri served as deputy chief of staff for intelligence and operations.

A military intelligence expert, Bagheri joined the IRGC in 1980 and fought in the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988). He participated in senior war planning meetings, which reportedly provided him exposure to rising military and regime figures, including Qassem Soleimani. Bagheri claimed he played a role in all major operations of the war, with few exceptions.

He held an engineering degree and earned a Ph.D. in political geography from Tarbiyat-e Modares University. He also reportedly taught at Iran’s Supreme National Defense University.

Bagheri’s involvement in Iran’s military dates back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. According to media reports, he was one of the students who attacked and seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

Bagheri’s activities date back to Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979. He was one of the students who attacked and seized the US embassy, according to media reports. Bagheri has also claimed that he played a role in all major operations of the war, with the exception of a few one.

He was identified as part of the IRGC Command Network by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), along with commanders Mohammad Ali Jafari, Ali Fadavi, and Gholam Ali Rashid. The group "dominates the upper echelons of Iran's military and controls planning, operations, intelligence, covert and irregular warfare operations, and internal security."

Bagheri was sanctioned by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union for human rights violations during the 2022–2023 Mahsa Amini protests.

His elder brother, Hassan Bagheri (born Gholam-Hossein Afshordi), was a prominent IRGC commander who was killed during the Iran-Iraq W

Operation Rising Lion

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday launched ‘Operation Rising Lion,’ stating the airstrikes targeted critical components of Iran’s nuclear and military program to counter the Iranian threat.

"We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear enrichment program, Iran's nuclear weaponization program, Iran's main enrichment facilities, leading nuclear scientists, and ballistic missile programs," Netanyahu said.

PM Netanyahu said in a video message: "Moments ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival."