End of the Basij: What the Death of Gholamreza Soleimani Means for Iranian Protesters

Iran's top security chief Ali Larijani and Basij commander Gholamreza Soleimani were killed in an overnight strike in Tehran, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed on Tuesday 17 March, saying the pair at the heart of Iran's security apparatus had been 'eliminated' by the Israel Defense Forces.

Larijani was serving as secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, a powerful post that sits at the junction of foreign policy, intelligence and internal repression. Soleimani, no relation to slain Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, led the Basij paramilitary for the past six years, overseeing a force long accused by rights groups of beating, shooting and incarcerating protesters who dared challenge the Islamic Republic. Israel's announcement came against the backdrop of an intensifying shadow war with Iran, stretching from Gaza to the Gulf.

Katz delivered the news in a written statement issued by his ministry. 'I have just been updated by the Chief of Staff that Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and the head of the Basij — Iran's central repression apparatus — (Soleimani), were eliminated last night,' he said, tying the strike directly to the military's top command. The defence minister later sharpened his language, quoted by the Times of Israel as saying that Larijani and the Basij chief had 'joined the head of the annihilation program, Khamenei, and all the eliminated members of the axis of evil, in the depths of hell.'

Basij Commander Gholamreza Soleimani And Iran's Protest Movement

The claimed killing of Gholamreza Soleimani lands hardest in one place that rarely features in official communiqués- Iran's streets. For more than four decades, the Basij has been the regime's blunt instrument against dissent, deployed on motorbikes and in plain clothes to break up gatherings, chase down student activists and, in many documented cases, open fire on unarmed crowds.

Soleimani took charge of the Basij unit six years ago, just before a new wave of unrest began to roil the country. From the fuel price protests of 2019 to the women-led uprising after the death of Mahsa Amini in custody, Basij units were repeatedly identified by witnesses and human rights monitors as among the main forces responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths and thousands of arrests. Iranian officials routinely defend the force as a 'popular' volunteer militia protecting national security. Protesters, in contrast, experience it as the hard edge of state control.

On Tuesday, Katz framed Soleimani's death as a surgically executed operation. Posting on X, he wrote that 'in a precise strike in Tehran; IDF eliminates the commander of the Basij unit,' adding that the attack was 'guided by precise intelligence from Military Intelligence' and carried out by the Israeli Air Force 'in the heart of Tehran.' If confirmed, it would mark one of the boldest direct hits on Iran's internal security leadership in recent years.

Ali Larijani's Final Message And The Regime's Narrative War

Larijani's reported death carries a different kind of weight. As secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, he was a central broker of strategy between the supreme leader, the Revolutionary Guard and the civilian government. His public comments often previewed Tehran's posture towards the West and its own citizens.

In his final post on X before the strike, Larijani tried to place Iran's current turmoil in a familiar revolutionary frame. Sharing an image, he recalled how, '47 years ago, on the threshold of the people's victory in the 1357 (1979) revolution in Iran, the delusional Pahlavi Prime Minister used to say that the sound of the massive crowds in the streets was not real, but the sound of a tape recording.'

He then took aim at US president Donald Trump, saying that 'now, Trump says about the million-strong anti-American and anti-Israeli gatherings in Iranian cities that these images are AI-generated. The historical victory of the people of Iran over the remnants of Epstein Island is near.'

Katz's rhetoric, invoking 'the axis of evil' and consigning Iran's leaders to 'the depths of hell,' underscores how personalised and absolutist this confrontation has become. On both sides, officials reach for moral absolutes while the facts of what actually happened in Tehran the previous night remain partially obscured behind military secrecy and propaganda.