Israel reportedly spent years breaching Iran’s traffic camera systems and infiltrating mobile phone networks to track the movements of late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his security details before his assassination, according to the Financial Times report.
Nearly all the traffic cameras in Tehran had been hacked for years, the Financial Times reported citing several current and former Israeli intelligence officers along with others familiar with the operation.
According to two sources in the report, footage from these cameras were encrypted and transmitted to servers in Tel Aviv and southern Israel.
The report said that one camera angle was particularly valuable because it helped Israel determine where bodyguards their personal vehicles and provide insights into daily routines inside the compound near Pasteur Street in Tehran, where Supreme Leader Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli air strike on Saturday, March 28th.
As per the CNN, the US and Israeli intelligence officials had closely analysed Khamenei’s daily patterns, including “where he lived, whom he met with, how he communicated and his possible retreat location under threat of attack.” They were also reportedly monitoring other senior Iranian political and military figures, who seldom gathered with the 86-year-old cleric.
Complex algorithms were used to compile detailed reports on members of Khamenei’s security team, including their home addresses, duty hours, commuting routes, and, most importantly, the individuals they were typically assigned to protect and transport—creating what intelligence officials refer to as a “pattern of life,” the report said.
This effort was part of a years-long intelligence operation that ultimately facilitated the assassination of the 86-year-old Ayatollah.
Monitoring this real-time traffic data allowed Israel and the CIA to pinpoint the exact time the Supreme Leader would be in his office on Saturday morning and identify who would accompany him.
Israeli intelligence detected a meeting at the leadership compound in central Tehran that morning, prompting the strikes to be advanced, Reuters reported. Importantly, the CIA confirmed that the Supreme Leader would be present at the location.
Citing sources, Financial Times said that plans for a night assault were revised to a daytime strike. Around 6 am Israel time, fighter jets launched precision-guided munitions at the compound, initiating the first phase of a coordinated US-Israeli operation, CNN reported.
The airstrikes struck the three targeted location in Iran within 60 seconds, killing Iran’s supreme leader along with 40 other senior officials, including chief of the Revolutionary Guard, according to report citing Israeli military official in anonymity.
Bureau Report
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