IRAN’S top military leader may have been executed by the regime after being identified as the turncoat who betrayed slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, it was claimed today.
Brigadier General Esmail Qaani – leader of the rogue state’s elite Quds Force – miraculously escaped the blitz which killed Khamenei a week ago.
But rumours spread last night that he had been identified as the mole at the pinnacle of the crumbling regime.
Unverified reports began swirling that he had been sentenced to death today after nothing was heard of him since war erupted.
The bearded strongman had survived despite being the focus of suspicion for years which earned him the nickname “The Man With Nine Lives.”
He is reported to have convinced interrogators of his innocence several times after mysteriously leaving sites wiped out by Israeli missile and drone strikes soon after.
Unverified reports circulating in Arab online media claimed Qaani left the site minutes before blasts wiped out 86-year-old Khamenei in his presidential palace last Saturday.
It is not the first time 68-year-old Qaani has cheated death during pinpoint attacks launched by his arch enemy.
He was believed to have died alongside Hezbollah heir apparent Hashem Saffeieddine, 60, in last week’s bunker blast.
But sources in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran have since revealed was not at the meeting – and dodged another a week earlier in which Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was blitzed.
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Reports circulating in Arab media that Qaani was arrested and possibly executed on suspicion of espionage have not been confirmed by Tehran.
Qaani took command of the IRGC’s Quds Force in January 2020 after the US assassinated his legendary predecessor, Qassem Suleimani.
The Quds Force is Iran’s foreign operations arm responsible for building, arming and coordinating the “Axis of Resistance” across the Middle East.
During his time in charge, he has survived while scores of his most prominent figures comrades have been killed – including more than 40 in the opening salvo of Operation Epic Fury.
After Israel’s penetration of Hezbollah’s leadership structure, Iran reportedly launched a massive mole hunt.
But the probe clearly failed to root out the traitor at the top of the regime.
It comes as dramatic footage shows the moment Khamenei’s bunker lair was blown to bits by a wave of 50 Israeli fighter jets.
Impressive aerial footage shows a huge flash of light as explosives hit the Tehran hide-out, followed by huge clouds of smoke.
The Israeli Defence Forces released the video revealing the strike that blew the dead Ayatollah’s base to smithereens.
An IDF statement read: “50 Israeli Air Force fighter jets dismantled Ali Khamenei’s underground military bunker beneath the Iranian regime’s leadership compound in Tehran.”
Video captured of the devastating strike show its enormous scale.
The bunker was meant to be used by the slain Supreme Leader as a “secure emergency asset before combat” – but he was taken out in US-Israeli operation Epic Fury this weekend before he had a chance to use it.
It comes as Trump’s “mission” to sink Iran’s “entire navy” gets underway.
The obliterated ship, named Shahid Beheshti, has only been in action for a year after being unveiled by the IRGC in February 2025.
But the rogue nation has continued to lash out across the region, including sending cluster bombs to Tel Aviv.
Footage shows a huge cluster missiles soaring through the sky in the Israeli city, before crashing into the ground.
Large strikes were also reported in Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israel said it had begun targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in the Dahiyeh area of Lebanon’s capital.
An unprecedented evacuation warning from Israel has seen Beirut roads blocked with traffic as residents desperately flee the coming chaos.
And last night Iran blew up Bahrain’s biggest petrol refinery, sending global markets haywire.
Overnight, a terrifying cluster bomb blitz rained down on Tel Aviv in Iran’s latest barrage of revenge attacks.
The Israeli Defence Forces previously confirmed that Iran launched ballistic missiles with cluster bomb warheads at the country.
