"Earlier this week, the air force, guided precisely by military intelligence, struck the senior leadership of the Basij unit in the heart of Tehran, in an attack that eliminated the unit's commander, Gholamreza Soleimani, along with several other senior commanders," the military said.

"The IDF now confirms that in this strike Ismaeil Ahmadi, who served as head of the intelligence directorate of the Basij unit, was also eliminated."

Israel said that Ahmadi had played a "key role" in the government's crackdown on mass protests in Iran earlier this year, which rights groups said left thousands dead.

Israel has been targeting the Basij force as part of efforts to try to undermine the authorities' grip on power.

Israeli strikes have killed numerous top Iranian officials, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei, security chief Ali Larijani and intelligence minister Esmail Khatib.

The military also announced on Friday that it had killed the spokesman of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Ali Mohammad Naini, as well as Mehdi Rostami Shamastan, whom it said was "a key commander in the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence".