According to sources familiar with the operation, the CIA had been monitoring Ayatollah Khamenei for months, gaining reliable insight into his locations and movement patterns. The key moment came when the agency learned that a meeting of top Iranian officials, including the Supreme Leader himself, would be held at the leadership complex in central Tehran on Wednesday morning.
The US and Israel, the officials said, decided to adjust the timing of the attack to take advantage of the new intelligence. Although they had originally planned a night strike, they changed the plan because of the opportunity to strike decisively at the very beginning of the conflict: eliminating the entire top Iranian government. Using US and its own intelligence, Israel carried out the operation that it had been planning for months.
A small number of precision aircraft participated in the attack.
The meeting was to be held in a complex that houses the offices of the Iranian presidency, supreme leader and National Security Council. Israel has determined that senior defense officials will be present at the meeting.
Among them were the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammad Pakpour, Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, the head of the Military Council, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards' Aerospace Forces, Seyyed Majid Mousavi, and Deputy Intelligence Minister Mohammad Shirazi.
The operation began at around 6:00 am Israeli time with the take-off of fighter jets. Although the number of aircraft involved in the attack was relatively small, they were armed with long-range and high-precision munitions. At around 9:40 am Tehran time, long-range missiles hit the complex.
"Israel managed to achieve tactical surprise"
At the time of the strike, senior national security officials were in one building, while Khamenei was in another, nearby building. “The morning attack was carried out simultaneously at several locations in Tehran, and at one of them the very top of the Iranian political and security structure gathered,” the Israeli defense official said in a statement.
The message was obtained by The New York Times. The official added that Israel, despite Iranian preparations for war, managed to achieve “tactical surprise.” The remarkably quick removal of the Iranian leadership reflects close coordination between the United States and Israel, but also the failure of Iranian leaders to take appropriate precautions.
The White House and the CIA declined to comment on the operation. Iran's state news agency IRNA confirmed today the deaths of two senior military commanders identified by Israel as targets in Saturday's strike: Rear Admiral Shamkhani and Major General Pakpour.
Intelligence officers have been gathering data for a long time
Sources familiar with the operation, speaking on condition of anonymity, described it as the result of months of preparation and deep intelligence gathered by the two countries on the Iranian leadership, particularly after the 12-day war last year.
Last June, then-US President Trump said the US knew where Ayatollah Khamenei was hiding. According to a former US official, this information was based on the same intelligence network used in this attack.
Sources: Top Iranian intelligence agencies decimated
During last year's war, the US learned even more about the communications and movements of the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guards under pressure. This knowledge was used to improve its ability to monitor Khamenei and predict his moves. The US and Israel also collected specific information about the locations of key Iranian intelligence officers.
The attacks that followed the strike on the leadership compound targeted locations where intelligence chiefs were staying. Although Iran's top intelligence officer managed to escape, the top Iranian intelligence agencies were decimated, sources said.
