“These are three ruthless mass murderers with international blood on their hands. The world is a better place without them,” the military said.

By JNS staff

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Friday morning that three top Iranian military leaders were killed in strikes carried out in the country.

Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami and the commander of Tehran’s Emergency Command were killed in the strikes across the country “by more than 200 fighter jets,” it said.

“These are three ruthless mass murderers with international blood on their hands. The world is a better place without them,” the IDF continued.

Additional top Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists are also believed to have been eliminated, according to reports in regime-controlled media and from the Associated Press.

Israeli Air Force jets attacked dozens of targets, including military and nuclear sites, in a “preemptive, precise, combined offensive” strike against Iran’s nuclear program early on Friday.

The IDF said the attack was based on “high-quality intelligence” and “in response to the Iranian regime’s ongoing aggression against Israel.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday morning said that the operation would “continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,” vowing to stop “the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.”