“They Got Him Anyway”:
How Israel Killed Iran's Top General Despite Secrecy
Ali Shadmani, head of Iran’s war command, was eliminated by Israel just four days after his appointment—his daughter now shares the inside story
Despite extreme operational secrecy, constant relocation, and strict counter-surveillance protocols, Israel succeeded in eliminating one of Iran’s highest-ranking military officials just four days into his new role.
In a rare and emotional post on Instagram, Mahdiyeh Shadmani, daughter of slain Iranian General Ali Shadmani, revealed chilling new details about the final days of her father - who was killed by the Israeli Air Force at the start of Operation Rising Lion.
“My father changed locations every few hours. He didn’t carry smartphones or tracking devices. All security protocols were followed,” she wrote. “Yet he remained a primary target—and they got him.”
Shadmani was appointed Chief of Iran’s War Headquarters after his predecessor, Gholam Ali Rashid, was also assassinated in an Israeli strike. Like Rashid, Shadmani reportedly operated out of a secret military base near Tehran that was bombed early in the campaign. Though he initially survived that strike, Israeli intelligence tracked him to a secondary hideout, which was later targeted in a precision follow-up strike.He was killed alongside several senior IRGC officers.
His daughter revealed that at the time of his assassination, he was not in uniform but wearing “plain, dusty clothes with no insignia”—a calculated attempt to conceal his identity.
Shadmani was one of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s closest military confidants, and is believed to have commanded both the IRGC and Iran’s conventional forces during the war. Israeli intelligence had designated him a high-priority target, seeing his death as a critical blow to Iran’s central war command.
Israeli defense sources described him as “the de facto wartime Chief of Staff,” leading Iran’s military from its emergency operations headquarters near Tehran.
The strike underscores the reach and precision of Israeli intelligence and airpower, even deep inside hostile territory and against Iran’s most secretive military infrastructure.