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Airwars Assessment
Between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. on Friday, June 13, 2025, at least six civilians, including four women and two men, were killed along with the Chief of Staff of the Iranian armed forces in a declared Israeli airstrike on the Bagheri family home in Tehran, Iran. The location of the family home was disputed by different sources, with some indicating its location as Sattarkhan, Patrice Lumumba Street, Abshouri Street, and others as Mahallati town or Vanak Square tower. The IDF claimed that the senior military official had been killed in “an underground headquarters.”
Among those reported killed were: Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri (Afshordi), the Chief of Staff of the Iranian armed forces; his wife, Ashraf Bagheri (Afshordi); their 28-year-old daughter Fereshteh Bagheri (Afshordi), a culture reporter with the Holy Defense News Agency; and Sina Soleimani, a manager at Vamid Investment.
@parsinenews posted on Instagram, announcing that 29-year-old Niloufar Qalehvand, her father Kamran Qalehvand and her mother Fatemeh Seddiqi were also killed. The family was reportedly killed in an airstrike on their home in the Nobonyad neighbourhood.
According to Rokna News, Niloufar was a Pilates instructor and a prominent athlete who was born in Isfahan in 1995. She had been teaching Pilates for over eight years and “always worked with passion and enthusiasm in his profession and motivated others.” Niloufar, which is Farsi for water lily, was poetically described by Mashreq News as “a flower that rises from ponds and clear, flowing waters; the goddess of water, her roots are in the soil, her stems are in the water, her leaves are in the wind, and her petals shine like the sun.” Mashreq further mentioned that Niloufar was the type of pilates instructor who told her students “sports are not just about the body and the physical body, the soul must be brought to consciousness.”
An Instagram post from @shahidan.zan described Fatemeh Seddiqi as a “calm, patient and kind lady” and included an image of her in a printed headscarf, two images of her daughter Niloufar pictured in colorful and black headscarves, and Kamran seen in a polo shirt infront of flowers.
@iraninsa remembered Kamran as “a man of your word, a skilled and honest photocopy machine repairman. You were a respected friend and neighbor.” A post from iran_air_cabin_crew remembered Kamran as having worked as an airline steward for a short time.
The Israeli Defense Forces declared the strike on its Telegram channel on June 13, 2025, writing, “Overnight, more than 200 Israeli Air Force fighter jets, guided by precise intelligence from the Intelligence Directorate, struck over 100 targets across Iran, including the hideouts of senior operatives in the Iranian military leadership. The strikes eliminated the three most senior military commanders of the Iranian regime: Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Iranian regime, Mohammad Hossein Bagheri. {…}”
In a subsequent statement published on Telegram on June 14, 2025, the IDF claimed that “The commander of the IRGC’s Surface-To-Surface Missile Array, Mohammad Bagheri, oversaw most of Iran’s long-range surface-to-surface and cruise missile capabilities. These capabilities serve as the regime’s primary offensive tools against the State of Israel. Bagheri managed Iran’s firepower systems and played an active role in the decision-making processes behind Iran’s attacks on Israel in April and October 2024. He was eliminated alongside IRGC’s Air Force Commander, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, and several other senior officials in an underground headquarters in Tehran.” Multiple local sources confirmed Mohammad Bagheri’s role in the Iranian military, therefore he has not been counted among the civilian harm.
Footage published by Rasank News reportedly showed Vanak Square Tower and nearby buildings heavily damaged from the strikes, with some floors completely destroyed. According to high-ranking Israeli officials quoted by Rasank News, one of the main targets of the strikes was Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the Chief of Staff of the Iranian armed forces, with Iranian officials not confirming the death at the time of reporting. Twitter/X user @mirakh838 reported that the Major General’s residence had been 2- Tehran, Sattarkhan, Patrice Lumumba Street, Abshouri Street, and posted images of a building that had been completely destroyed, along with an image of Bagheri, a middle-aged man with grey hair wearing glasses and his military uniform.
Instagram user @nasime.wesal described the destruction of the house saying ,“The strength and volume of the destruction is such that no one can get out alive under any circumstances.” Twitter/X user @yaghma_fashkham wrote that, along with the Major General’s home, “Several images are also being released showing the destruction of a number of houses in the Mahallati town.”
Twitter/X user @FattahiFarzad posted a video of ambulances in the area surrounded by rubble, with the citizen recording saying, “They hit Sardar Bagheri’s house…A horrible situation.”
Meanwhile, Twitter/X user @farkhsaber posted a video of a building engulfed in flames, with the caption “Mohammad Bagheri’s house completely turned to ashes after his assassination.”
@Strand123 posted videos of the strikes, where those recording can be heard saying that the time was “3:37 AM, at the entrance of Farahzad, a residential building has been hit,” and buildings and floors seen in flames and rescue vehicles gathering outside.
Later, Masirah TV News officially confirmed the death of Major General Bagheri at “about 3 a.m.” Instagram user @masoudsharafi313 wrote that, along with Bagheri, his wife Ashraf Bagheri (Afshordi) and his 28-year-old daughter Fereshteh Bagheri had also been killed in the strikes, and posted an image of them together, cheerful and smiling.
Namnak News published a childhood photo of Mohammed Hossein Bagheri along with his brother and sister, stating that he “was born in Tehran in 1939, but originally came from the village of Afshard in Hadith County, East Azerbaijan,” and that his brother Hassan (Gholam Hossein Afshordi) “was the first head of intelligence and operations of the IRGC.”
Defa Press noted in its tribute to the Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the highest military official of Iran, that he “was a simple and humble personality, while being powerful and capable, and his family members also followed this sublime and brilliant culture.”
Instagram page @bonyaderavayatefath mourned the death of Fereshteh Ashfordi Bagheri, daughter of Mohammad Bagheri, who had been working as a reporter at the Holy Defence News Agency. An image of her shows a young woman in traditional clothing and wearing a black hijab, smiling. In the image, she is seen writing on a piece of paper. @Miilllaad1996, Mehr News, and Shargh Daily noted that Fereshteh was a “cultural reporter for the Holy Defense News Agency, and along with @FarsNews_Agency posted an image of her at work.
Jagan News published a tribute written by a colleague to Fereshteh, saying that she was instrumental in bringing to light the deaths of journalists in the Gaza Strip, that she had deliberately chosen to live simply and anonymously, commuting by subway and working late hours without revealing her family connections. She had studied communications at Allameh Tabatabaei University and spent her career writing about “martyrs”, often expressing to colleagues her desire to go to Gaza and become a martyr herself. Joining the Holy Defense News Agency at the age of 22, she wished to follow in the footsteps of her uncle Hassan, who had also been a journalist before becoming a military commander. She was born on December 7, 1997 (Azar 16, 1376), and was killed in the strikes at the age of 28. Bahman Kargar, head of the Foundation for the Preservation of Monuments, described her as “the simplest and most hardworking person in that complex,” noting that even when her father was warned about threats to her safety, Major General Bagheri had responded: “Let us go about our lives and live with the people.”
When colleagues joked she would one day become CEO of the news agency, Fereshte would answer with determination: “Never!”, with the writer adding “And this was never, the same loud “no” to rank and position, to the hopes and desires of this world, and to clinging to staying, because you were practicing jumping every day, not clinging, letting go… until the dawn of Friday, June 13 when your talent for jumping was perfected and, like a swallow whose time for migration has come, or a beautiful butterfly whose cocoon is too big for its small size, you broke your cocoon and emerged, and you were reborn again, this time in the heavens and in the paradise of the butterflies of the kingdom…”
In another tribute to her published in ISNA News Agency and written by Fereshteh Hajizadeh, the secretary of the Defense Press Agency, she was once again described as someone who kept her family ties hidden in order to make her own path independent of her fathers reputation, and when it came to light later her colleague jokingly said in reference to obtaining an interview with a senior official “Tell them you are the daughter of Major General Bagheri, they will definitely come for an interview immediately” to which she reportedly said “Even if I wait outside their room door day and night, I will not say that.” She was noted to have taken on field reporting duties that most others would avoid due to the hardships of such work, and especially volunteered to report on the “funerals of martyrs.”
Noted for exemplary conduct at work regarding adherence to norms and rules, they added that “Whenever an instruction was issued regarding overtime, work closures, or increased workload, she would insist that there should be no discrimination between her and her other colleagues and that she should be subject to the regulations like everyone else, while she could have used her father’s position to facilitate the situation. She always said, ‘If there is going to be an adjustment, it should include me and there should be no difference between me and others.’”
Dr. Mohammad Mokhber met with the surviving family of the deceased and posted pictures of them in mourning, remembering their loved ones. Entekhab News posted an interview with a surviving brother, who said, “I got really worried, I went there to their neighbourhood where I was confronted with a building where the two main floors, where Hajj Agha lived, I saw that everything had been destroyed. With three projectiles hit, the building was hit by explosions and nearly everything was destroyed,” adding that Bagheri’s wife and unmarried younger daughter had been killed as well.
Twitter/X page @__mojtaba___ posted that the news of their deaths “left the Iranian nation in mourning. Sardar Bagheri and his family did not take a single riyal from the treasury. They were renowned for their health in all aspects. Their departure left a great scar on the heart of Iran.”
@Seyedmuostafa and @AmirH_Hadadian posted images of the graves of the Bagheri family with their names: “General of the IRGC, Mohammad Bagheri, Martyr Ashraf Afshordi, Martyr Fereshteh Afshordi.”
The Holy Defense News Agency also posted an image of their graves and noted that their funeral took place on the 28th of June at Plot 24 of Behesht Zahra. Twitter/X page @killedByIsraeli noted that Mohammed Bagheri and his brother Hassan were “among the most important military commanders of Iran who played a major role in the war and in defending Iran during the Iraqi invasion.” The news of the targeting of Major General Bagheri also received mixed reactions from sources like Twitter/X page @IranNewsAgency0, which celebrated his and his daughter’s deaths.
Twitter/X user @behnamsamadi_ir also reported on the death of a young man, Sina Soleimani, who had erroneously been previously mistaken for another individual. Sina, the son of Ebrahimeh, a retired municipal employee, had been residing in an apartment on the fourth floor of a building in Araj, Golzar Street, behind Sardar Bagheri’s house, where the blast wave and lack of oxygen caused him to lose his life under the rubble.” He was a manager at Vamid Investment, and an image posted of him shows a young bearded man smartly dressed in a suit at his place of work. An image of his apartment building before and after the strikes showed the extent of the damage.
Victims
Family members (2)
Family members (3)
Individuals
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention multiple possible locations. The generic coordinates for these locations are: Abshouri Street (آبشوری) at 35.720540, 51.373517; or Sattarkhan (ستارخان) at 35.721120, 51.363029; or Patrice Lumumba Street (خیابان پاتریس لومومبا) at 35.718866, 51.373853; or Vanak square (میدان ونک) at 35.757508, 51.409929; or Mahalatti Town (شهرک محلاتی) at 35.803959, 51.510455; or Golzar Street (خيابان گلزار) at 35.794268, 51.490470. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.