CIA ‘tracked Iranian leaders for months’ ahead of first attacks
Official says that a variety of factors created a golden opportunity to take out much of Iran’s leadership
Israeli and American authorities spent weeks tracking the movements of senior Iranian leaders, including Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sharing information that allowed the strikes to be carried out in a surprise daylight attack, according to an Israeli military official and a person familiar with the operation.
The eventual barrage of US-Israeli attacks on Iran came so quickly that they were nearly simultaneous - with three strikes in three locations hitting within a single minute - killing Khamenei and some 40 senior figures, including the head of the Revolutionary Guard and the country’s defence minister, the Israeli military official said on Sunday.
The official insisted on anonymity to more fully detail the attack, but said that a variety of factors created a golden opportunity to take out much of Iran’s leadership, like weeks of training and monitoring the movements of senior figures as well as intelligence in real time before the attack began that key targets were gathered together.
Striking by day also gave an additional element of surprise, said the official, who said that so many major, rapid-fire strikes were critical to keep key officials from fleeing after the first strike. The official said Israel closely cooperated with its US counterparts and had used a similar tactic at the beginning of last June’s war - which resulted in the killing of several senior Iranian figures.
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The official also noted Khamenei having posted defiant tweets taunting US President Donald Trump in the days before the attack.