Israel has attacked several Iranian nuclear facilities and military sites, and carried out assassinations of top military officials and nuclear scientists. An initial wave of strikes was carried out on Friday morning. 

Here’s an overview of the key figures assassinated by Israel in its strikes on Friday targeting Iran’s nuclear programme and military.

Military generals:

• Major-General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the armed forces and the second-highest commander after Ayatollah Khamenei
• General Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s primary military force
• Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s Air Force
• General Gholamali Rashid, deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces

Nuclear scientists:

• Fereydoun Abbasi, the former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and holder of a PhD in nuclear physics, who played a key role in Iran’s uranium enrichment programme
• Mohammad Mehdi Tehranji, president of Islamic Azad University, who previously served as president of Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University and was a professor in its physics faculty
• Abdolhamid Minouchehr, holder of a PhD in nuclear engineering, who served as dean of the nuclear engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University and conducted extensive research on improving the efficiency and safety of nuclear plants
• Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari, professor of nuclear engineering at Shahid Beheshti University
• Amir Hossein Faghihi, who belonged to the engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University and previously served as vice president of the AEOI and head of the Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute
• Motallebzadeh, a nuclear scientist who was targeted and killed along with his wife.