A look at the top Iranian official and the head of internal security targeted by Israel

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Ali Larijani, a top Iranian security official, was widely believed to be running the country as it reeled from the killing of its supreme leader and a widening war. Israel said Tuesday that it killed Larijani in an overnight strike.

Israel's military also said it killed Iranian Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, who led a powerful internal security force that has crushed waves of mass protests against the Shiite theocracy.

Iran has not yet confirmed or denied their deaths. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top security officials were killed in the surprise U.S. and Israeli strikes that started the war. Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, who was appointed to replace him, has not been seen in public, and Israel suspects he was wounded.

The killing of top leaders has so far had little impact on the war itself, as Iran's Revolutionary Guard continues to fire missiles at Israel and Arab Gulf countries. Iran has also effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passes, sending prices up and rattling the world economy.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes were aimed at weakening Iran's government “to give the Iranian people the opportunity to remove it.” There have been no signs of anti-government protests since the war began, as many Iranians are sheltering from the American and Israeli strikes.

Larijani hails from one of Iran’s most famous political families, which many media outlets have compared to the Kennedys in the United States. One brother, Sadeq, served as the head of Iran’s judiciary, while another, Mohammad Javad, was a senior diplomat who closely advised the late Khamenei on foreign affairs.

Larijani has been a conservative force within Iran’s theocracy, issuing increasingly hard-line threats throughout the years. In the 1990s, he served as Iran’s culture minister, tightening censorship. He served as parliament speaker from 2008 to 2020, and most recently as head of the Supreme National Security Council.

Larijani has also written at least six philosophy books, including three exploring the works of German philosopher Immanuel Kant.

He was appointed to advise Khamenei on strategy in nuclear talks with the Trump administration and traveled to Oman to meet with mediators just two weeks before the war began. Like other top Iranian leaders, he was under heavy U.S. sanctions and implicated in the violent repression of mass protests in January.

He was ineligible to become supreme leader because he is not a Shiite cleric. But he was widely expected to serve as a top adviser, and many believed he was running the country as U.S. and Israeli strikes have driven Iran's leadership underground.

A week ago, after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to attack Iran “TWENTY TIMES HARDER” if Tehran stopped oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, Larijani responded to him on X.

“The sacrificial nation of Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran,” he wrote. “Be careful not to get eliminated yourself.”

Less is known about Soleimani, who led Iran’s paramilitary Basij, an all-volunteer force fiercely loyal to the Islamic Republic. He is not related to Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran's top general who was killed in a U.S. strike in 2020.

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Soleimani was killed in a combat tent alongside other Basij commanders, who were using it as makeshift headquarters as Israel has targeted several of their bases.

Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani was born in the mid-1960s in the western Iranian city of Farsan. He first joined the Basij as a volunteer in 1984 during the Iran-Iraq war, when it was notorious for launching human wave attacks at fortified Iraqi positions. He became the commander of the Basij in 2019.

The Basij numbers in the hundreds of thousands, and includes military-style brigades, anti-riot police and a vast network of informers who spy on Iranian society. During protests, plainclothes members can often be seen attacking, beating and hauling away demonstrators.

Soleimani has been under U.S. and international sanctions since 2021 connected to his involvement in crushing protests going back to the disputed presidential election of 2009. The U.S. Treasury said the Basij killed “hundreds of Iranian men, women and children” when it cracked down on protests in 2019.

Thousands were killed and tens of thousands detained in January when Iranians again rose up. It was the bloodiest such crackdown since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and caught the attention of Trump, who threatened to intervene on the protesters' behalf before shifting his attention to Iran's nuclear program.

Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel and Spike from Budapest, Hungary.

FILE - Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, smiles as he attends in a ceremony at Iran's nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, 300 kms 186 (miles) south of capital Tehran, Iran, Monday April, 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian, File)

FILE - Ali Larijani, center, head of Iran's National Security Council, gestures as Hezbollah supporters throw rice to welcome him outside Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

FILE - Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani gives a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Dec. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

FILE - Iranian Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani, greets journalists upon his arrival to meet with the Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Tuesday, led by airlines still seeing customers want to fly despite worries about the economy. That's despite another climb for oil prices because of the war with Iran.

The S&P 500 added 0.7%, coming off its best day since the war began. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 352 points, or 0.8%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.

It’s a break, for now at least, from the usual playbook since the start of the war, where stock prices have tended to go in the opposite direction of oil prices. The fear in financial markets has been that a long-term disruption to the global flow of oil because of the war could send prices so high for so long that it damages the global economy.

On Tuesday, the price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.8% to $95.18. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 1.4% to $101.63. But they pared even bigger gains from earlier in the morning, and they're still below where oil prices were at the end of last week.

Delta Air Lines also offered an encouraging signal about the strength of the economy after raising its forecast for revenue for the first three months of 2026. It said it’s seen demand to fly accelerate into March from both businesses and households.

Of course, it’s also having to pay higher prices for jet fuel because of the spike in oil prices. But it said the strong demand for flights could nevertheless allow it to report profit for the start of 2026 that’s in line with its earlier forecast.

Delta’s stock flew 5% higher, and it helped other airline stocks trim their own sharp losses for the year so far. United Airlines climbed 2.8%, and Southwest Airlines rose 3.4%.

American Airlines gained 3.8% after saying it's also likely to report stronger growth in revenue for the start of this year than it had forecast earlier.

Other areas of the market whose profits are closely tied to the economy's strength were likewise rising. JPMorgan Chase climbed 1.2% and was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.

Some beaten-down stocks in the financial industry recovered losses from earlier in the year, including companies swept up in worries about whether software businesses and other industries potentially under threat will pay back all their loans. Blue Owl Capital gained 5%, and Ares Management rose 5.1%.

Another big winner was Uber Technologies, which rose 5.7% after announcing an expansion of its partnership with Nvidia. They plan to launch a fleet of autonomous vehicles using Nvidia’s technology, beginning with Los Angeles and San Francisco in the first half of next year.

The U.S. stock market has a track record of bouncing back relatively quickly from military conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, as long as oil prices don’t stay too high for too long. Many professional investors are expecting that to be the case again, which has helped keep U.S. stock prices near their record levels.

For all its dramatic swings over the last couple weeks, including several that struck hour to hour, the S&P 500 is only 3.3% below its all-time high.

That's even as Treasury yields have climbed on expectations that higher oil prices will keep the Federal Reserve from resuming its cuts to interest rates for a while. Higher yields push downward on prices for stocks and all kinds of investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.20% from 4.23% late Monday, but it remains well above the 3.97% level it was at before the war with Iran began.

The Fed will make its next announcement on interest rates Wednesday afternoon, and traders see virtually no chance of a cut, according to data from CME Group.

Cuts to interest rates by the Fed would give the economy and job market a boost, and President Donald Trump has been calling for them angrily. But reductions would also worsen inflation.

In Australia, the central bank is actually raising interest rates. Citing higher fuel prices, the Reserve Bank of Australia made its first hike since November 2023.

In stock markets abroad, European indexes rose following a mixed finish in Asia. Indexes rose 1% in London and fell 0.9% in Shanghai for two of the world’s bigger moves.

AP Writers Matt Ott, Elaine Kurtenbach and Rod McGuirk contributed.

Philip Finale works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Screens display financial information on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

People stand in front of a stock price monitor showing Nikkei index at a security company Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person stands near a stock price monitor showing Nikkei 225 index at a security company Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person looks at a stock price monitor showing New York Dow and Nikkei indexes also US dollar Japanese yen exchange rate at a security company Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks near a stock price monitor showing Nikkei index at a security company Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)