The IDF said Thursday it eliminated Makram Atimi, commander of a central Iranian ballistic missile unit, in a precise airstrike in the Kermanshah area.
The military said Atimi was responsible for dozens of missile launches toward Israel.
In a separate strike, the military said it also killed several battalion commanders from the same unit, which it said was behind repeated launches from northwestern Iran.
The IDF said the operations are part of an ongoing effort to degrade Iran’s missile capabilities and command structure.
US airstrike targets Tehran bridge to disrupt Iranian supply routes
Separately, a US airstrike on Thursday targeted a major highway bridge connecting Tehran to the nearby city of Karaj, with a source familiar with the details telling The Jerusalem Post that the strike was intended to disrupt Iranian supply routes used to transport missile and drone components.
The route was reportedly part of a logistical network moving critical parts to launch units responsible for attacks targeting US forces and Israel.
According to the source, the objective was to sever a central artery used to sustain Iran’s aerial and missile operations, highlighting a broader effort to degrade its operational capabilities.
Later on Thursday, Iranian Military Spokesperson Abolfazl Shekarchi said that striking civilian structures, including unfinished bridges, will not compel Iranians to surrender, stressing that every bridge and building will be rebuilt stronger.
Iranian state media also later said that the strike on the bridge had killed eight people, and wounded 95.
Earlier, the IDF said it struck and killed Jamshid Eshaqi, the commander of the Iranian Armed Forces’ Oil Headquarters.
“The Oil Headquarters forms an integral part of the regime’s armed forces, enabling the continuation of their activities and military buildup through profits from oil sales,” the IDF stated.
Eshaqi led the financial arm of the regime’s forces
The strike that killed Eshaqi took place earlier in the week, the military said, adding that it was conducted following intelligence from the IDF Intelligence Directorate.
“Eshaqi led the financial arm of the regime’s forces as well as the military industries responsible for the production of ballistic missiles and the regime’s mechanisms of repression,” the IDF stated. “In addition, Eshaqi worked to allocate funds for financing Iran’s terror proxies across the Middle East, most notably the Hezbollah terror organization and the Houthis.”
It went on to say that, for years, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other military forces have been funded by large revenues from oil sales that bypass international sanctions, and that to manage this income, Iran set up dedicated headquarters, making oil revenue a key source for building up the Islamic Republic’s forces and funding terrorist activity worldwide.
IDF strikes critical IRGC financial HQ in Tehran
Separately, Israeli jets struck the IRGC's financial headquarters in Tehran on Wednesday, the IDF said.
With the funds routed through the headquarters, Tehran “operated to produce thousands of ballistic missiles and weapons” and build up the regime’s armed forces, the military added.
Among the forces that recieved finding through the headquarters were the Internal Security Forces and the Basij, which the IDF noted “murdered thousands” of civilians during the protests that broke out in late December.
The headquarters also worked in the Iranian apparatus that, over the years, transferred “dozens of billions of dollars” to Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, the military added.
The three groups are among the Islamic regime’s network of regional proxies.
Earlier, the IDF said that during its Wednesday strikes on Iran, it had destroyed an IRGC Ground Forces base and a mobile command post. The military also said it had struck a ballistic missile storage site in the Tabriz area.
IDF: Iran funneled billions to proxies, prioritized military over civilians
According to figures released Thursday by the IDF, Iran has allocated billions of dollars to fund proxy groups throughout the Middle East and expand its military capabilities at the expense of civilian needs.
Iran’s government budget for the period March 2025 to March 2026 totaled $58.7 billion, with roughly $15.85 billion, about 27%, allocated to defense, according to the IDF.
"Rather than investing in infrastructure, education, and healthcare, these funds have been directed toward the large-scale production of weapons and missiles, as well as the expansion of armed forces, including the Basij militia," the military said in a statement.
Regarding financing its regional proxies, the IDF said Tehran has provided Hezbollah with about $1 billion annually, rising to roughly $2 billion in 2025. Hamas and other groups in Gaza and the West Bank have received hundreds of millions of dollars, the IDF said, alongside similar funding levels to the Houthis in Yemen and tens of millions more to pro-Iranian militias in Iraq.
Amichai Stein and Reuters contributed to this report.