Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corp, which Israel has been battering with increasing intensity, were inevitably a prime target as the guardians of a regime built on hatred of the West and after decades of violent subversion often enacted with the aid of that other enemy of the West: Russia.

Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi was appointed to lead the group after his predecessor, Gen. Hossein Salami, was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Sunday confirmed Israel killed its intelligence chief Mohammad Kazemi. In a Fox News interview, Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said his country had killed Kazemi as part of a broader campaign targeting Iran's nuclear and military capability.