Is­rael said Tues­day it killed two se­nior Iran­ian se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cials in overnight strikes in a ma­jor blow to the coun­try’s lead­er­ship. Iran, which did not im­me­di­ate­ly con­firm ei­ther death, fired new salvos of mis­siles and drones at its Gulf Arab neigh­bours and Is­rael in a war that showed no signs of abat­ing.

Ali Lar­i­jani, sec­re­tary of Iran’s Supreme Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, and Gen. Gho­lam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Guard’s all-vol­un­teer Basij force, were “elim­i­nat­ed last night,” Is­raeli De­fense Min­is­ter Is­rael Katz said. Lar­i­jani was con­sid­ered one of the most pow­er­ful fig­ures in the coun­try since Supreme Leader Ay­a­tol­lah Ali Khamenei was killed in an airstrike on the first day of the war.

Both men were key to Iran’s vi­o­lent crack­down on protests in Jan­u­ary that chal­lenged the theoc­ra­cy’s 47-year rule. The killings would strip Iran of im­por­tant lead­ers dur­ing a war that presents that great­est test for the Is­lam­ic Re­pub­lic in re­cent decades.