Israel’s assassination of most of the paramilitary Basij’s leadership signals a new phase in the war, in which the political repression apparatus in Iran is becoming the primary target.

On the night of Monday into Tuesday, Israel launched its largest and most effective wave of assassinations since the opening hours of the war with Iran, killing Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani, along with Basij chief Gholamreza Soleimani and over a dozen Basij commanders. A report from Iran International claimed that over 300 Basij agents were also killed, a major blow to one of the primary enforcers of Tehran’s authoritarian rule.