Larijani posted a message of condolences amid reports of his death.

Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (NSDC) Iran's Ali Larijani, amid Israeli claims about his death, published a letter of condolences to the Iranian sailors who died as a result of the US Navy strike on the frigate IRIS Dena off the coast of Sri Lanka. The statement appeared on March 17 on his page on the social network X (ex. Twitter).

"Their memory will forever remain in the hearts of the Iranian people, and these martyrdom deaths will strengthen the foundation of the army of the Islamic Republic in the structure of the armed forces for many years to come," the statement said.

Earlier, the head of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Israel Katz, announced the destruction of Larijani last night during the attack on Tehran.

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On the same day, Katz reported that besides Larijani, the deputy commander of the Iranian volunteer paramilitary group Basij and other high-ranking representatives of this movement were killed.

A day earlier, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that it had launched a large-scale series of strikes on Iranian targets in Tehran, Shiraz and Tabriz.

The attack on the Iranian ship by a submarine became known on March 4. Later, Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth claimed that an American submarine had sunk an Iranian ship.

Military expert Yuri Knutov, in an interview with Izvestia on the same day, noted that the ship was sunk by a US submarine amid insufficient organization of the Iranian crew and low chances of detecting the vessel at sea due to the quiet operation of the American submarine.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.