Israeli intelligence operatives reportedly infiltrated Tehran’s traffic camera system, using it to monitor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his security detail, and other high-ranking Iranian officials for an extended period before his assassination. This cyber-infiltration was part of a prolonged intelligence operation that culminated in Khamenei’s assassination on Saturday.

Surveillance System Compromised

The Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, managed to access nearly all of the capital’s surveillance cameras, which Iran employs extensively to oversee both regime dissidents and its citizens. This allowed them to track significant bodyguard movements and gather detailed intelligence on the officials they were assigned to protect.

According to reports, images captured by these cameras were sent back to locations in Tel Aviv and southern Israel. This enabled Mossad to gather detailed intelligence on the bodyguards’ residences, work routines, and the officials they were assigned to protect.

A particularly advantageous camera view allowed Mossad to monitor where the bodyguards parked their personal vehicles upon entering the Supreme Leader’s compound on Pasteur Street in central Tehran. This information was critical in tracking Khamenei’s movements and planning the eventual attack.

Assassination and Aftermath

The Supreme Leader was discovered amid the debris after the daytime airstrike, an operation aimed at destabilizing the Iranian regime. Israeli jets, having flown directly from military bases, launched approximately 30 precision-guided munitions at his residence.

Khamenei presided over a brutal regime for 36 years which slaughtered thousands of his own citizens, repressed women, and funded terrorist proxies Hamas and Hezbollah which seek to eliminate Israel. When Israel located Khamenei on Saturday morning, they disrupted around a dozen mobile phone towers near Pasteur Street, making phones appear busy when called and preventing his security from receiving possible warnings.

‘We knew Tehran like we know Jerusalem,’ an Israeli intelligence official told the Financial Times. ‘And when you know [a place] as well as you know the street you grew up on, you notice a single thing that’s out of place.’

The CIA also had a human source who provided vital intelligence, according to the newspaper. Combined with Israeli AI tools and algorithms which sifted through vast amounts of data on Iran’s leadership and their movements, the source allowed them to trace Khamenei to the meeting where he was hit.

Once Israel and the US became aware of where Khamenei was holding his meeting, they decided they had to act. During a war, the Ayatollah would be shifted underground into bomb-resistant bunkers, and acting early gave them the element of surprise.

Mossad officials planned the attack for months but decided to act immediately once they confirmed his location. They used traffic cameras which showed Khamenei’s meeting was on schedule, hacked phone networks, and the CIA source on the ground.

Retaliation and Escalation

During the strike, senior Iranian national security officials were in another part of the building. Two high-level military leaders—Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani, and commander of the IRGC Maj. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour—and Khamenei’s daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law, and son-in-law were also obliterated in the Tehran strikes.

The wife of Iran’s Supreme Leader, 79-year-old Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, was also killed. As was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran has since retaliated, furiously carrying out strikes across its neighboring Gulf states, with explosions in Qatar, Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.

The war spread further on Monday, with Israel exchanging fire with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, US jets being downed in Kuwait, and Qatar taking out Iranian fighter planes. But on Monday night, Donald Trump warned Iran that the ‘big one’ was coming as he said he was not afraid to put boots on the ground if needed.

Mr. Trump estimated the conflict would last ‘four weeks or so,’ but boasted that US and Israeli forces were ‘way ahead of schedule.’ The US President added that soldiers would be sent ‘if they were necessary.’