Khamenei assassination: CIA tracked Iran's supreme leader for months – NYT

Shortly before the United States and Israel were ready to launch their attack on Iran, the CIA determined the location of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's Supreme Leader.

Source: The New York Times, citing sources

Details: According to people familiar with the operation, the CIA tracked Ayatollah Khamenei for several months, mapping his movements and habits. The agency later learned that a meeting of Iran's top leadership was scheduled to take place on Saturday morning at a leadership compound in central Tehran.

Most importantly, CIA intelligence indicated that the supreme leader himself would be present.

The US and Israel decided to adjust the timing of their strike, partly to take advantage of the new intelligence, officials familiar with the decision-making process said.

The NYT says that this information opened a window of opportunity for both countries to achieve a "critical and early victory" – eliminating Iran's top leadership and Ayatollah Khamenei.

Quote: "The remarkably swift removal of Iran's supreme leader reflected the close coordination and intelligence sharing between the United States and Israel in the run-up to the attack, and the deep intelligence the countries had developed on Iranian leadership, especially in the wake of last year's 12-day war. The operation also showed the failure of Iran's leaders to take adequate precautions to avoid exposing themselves at a time where both Israel and the US sent clear signals that they were preparing for war.

The CIA passed its intelligence, which offered 'high fidelity' on Ayatollah Khamenei's position, to Israel, according to people briefed on the intelligence."

Details: Using US intelligence and its own capabilities, Israel carried out an operation it had been planning for months: the targeted killing of Iran's senior leadership.

The US and Israeli governments, which had initially planned to strike at night under cover of darkness, decided to change the timing to exploit intelligence about the gathering at the government compound in Tehran on Saturday morning.

The operation began at around 06:00 in Israel, when fighter jets took off from their bases. Relatively few aircraft were required for the strike, but they were armed with long-range, precision-guided munitions.

Two hours and five minutes after take-off, at around 09:40 Tehran time, long-range missiles struck the compound. At the moment of impact, senior national security officials were in one building within the compound, while Mr Khamenei was in another nearby building.

Quote: "People briefed on the operation described it as a product of good intelligence and months of preparations.

Last June, with planning underway to strike Iran's nuclear targets, President Trump asserted that the United States knew where Ayatollah Khamenei was hiding and could have killed him.

Details: The US and Israel also gathered specific intelligence on the whereabouts of key Iranian intelligence officers. In subsequent strikes following the attack on the government compound, the locations of intelligence chiefs were hit. Although Iran's top intelligence official managed to escape, the senior ranks of Iranian intelligence agencies were wiped out, the sources added.

Background:

• Earlier, US President Donald Trump confirmed that Khamenei had been killed in a joint US-Israeli operation. Intelligence services were able to determine the ayatollah's precise location before a missile strike was carried out.
• Previously, the CIA warned the White House that Khamenei's death could lead to power being transferred to the most aggressive leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who advocate for open war with the West.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!