Opening Strike Eliminated Iran’s Security Leadership After Intelligence Shifted Timing of Attack
Israel’s opening strike in the war against Iran succeeded in eliminating much of the country’s senior security leadership after Israeli intelligence discovered that a high-level meeting of Iranian officials had been moved up by several hours, prompting Israel to accelerate its attack.
According to details reported by journalist Ronen Bergman, the strike had originally been planned for that Motzoei Shabbos, when Iran’s Supreme Defense Council was scheduled to hold its weekly meeting. Many of the country’s most senior military and security officials were expected to attend the gathering.
Israeli planners believed that a concentrated strike against the meeting would accomplish two key objectives. First, eliminating multiple senior figures at once would create chaos among lower-ranking officials and make it difficult for Iran to respond effectively. Second, once the broader military campaign began, those same leaders would likely disperse to fortified bunkers, making it far more difficult to target them individually.
However, Israeli military intelligence received urgent information indicating that the meeting had been moved up to that Shabbos morning. Some assessments suggested the change may have been made out of concern that Israel could launch an attack later in the evening or overnight.
As the Israeli Air Force prepared aircraft assigned to the first wave of strikes, intelligence officials received an additional report that significantly altered the situation. According to the new information, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was still at his residence. In recent days, the Revolutionary Guards had circulated claims that the leader had been moved away from Tehran or even outside the country, but intelligence suggested he had remained at home. Israeli officials recognized the moment as a rare opportunity that might not come again.
Bergman reported on Ynet that Israel decided to launch approximately 30 missiles aimed at destroying the entire site, including the meeting hall used by the Supreme Defense Council, the residence of the supreme leader, and the adjacent military office.
Later that night, Israeli intelligence learned that another senior-level meeting was scheduled to take place at the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence building several kilometers away, where top officials in the country’s intelligence apparatus were gathering. That location was also added to the opening strike plan.
The unusual convergence of events — Khamenei remaining at his residence or military office, the Supreme Defense Council meeting taking place above ground, and a simultaneous meeting of senior intelligence officials nearby — created the conditions for what became the devastating opening strike of the second war with Iran.
Israeli intelligence officials later said it remains unclear why Iran’s leadership had not moved underground despite signs that an attack could be imminent. U.S. forces had been concentrating in the region and the possibility of a strike had already been widely discussed.
Because the senior leadership remained above ground, Israel did not need to use bunker-busting munitions in the first strike. Roughly 30 missiles were fired at the compound of the supreme leader, destroying his residence along with two separate conference halls used by the Supreme Defense Council, both of which had been designated as targets.
According to Bergman, the missiles also destroyed a nearby office where aides were located as well as the supreme leader’s military office, where his military secretary was present. At the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence building, several participants in the senior meeting were also killed.
Officials said that those who had already descended into bunkers or were located on underground levels at the supreme leader’s complex survived the strike, but the senior leadership figures who remained above ground were eliminated.
{Matzav.com}