Inside the US-Israel plan to assassinate Iran’s Khamenei

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After more than three decades as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was assassinated in US and Israeli air strikes on Saturday morning.

The man who led the country in two capacities since 1981 was a key figure in the Islamic revolution that overthrew the Iranian monarchy in 1979. He first served as president, then as supreme leader following the 1989 death of revolutionary leader Rohollah Khomeini.

How did the Israel-US alliance know where to hit?

The air strikes, which targeted Khamenei and his top defence officials, took place on Saturday at around 9:40am in Tehran (06:10 GMT).

Khamenei was killed in a central Tehran location that houses the offices and residence of the supreme leader, Iran’s president, and the country’s National Security Council.

According to The New York Times, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the operation, the US’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had gathered information about a Saturday morning meeting there that would include Khamenei and the country’s senior military cadre. The CIA then shared the information with Israel.

CBS, also citing an anonymous official, reported that the CIA shared Khamenei’s location data with Israel.

In US President Donald Trump’s Truth Social statement in the wake of Khamenei’s killing, he wrote that the late leader “was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do”.

It is unclear if the US intercepted phone or other digital communications, used satellite imagery, or used covert human agents to obtain this information.

It is also unclear why the country’s most senior military leaders decided to gather in a predictable location while threats of a US-Israel attack were imminent.

It is known, however, that Israel has long recruited covert operatives in Iran and was watching Khamenei’s circle for years, gathering information as mundane as how and where they get food, an unnamed ex-CIA official told The Guardian. During the 12-day war last June, six Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated, some in their homes.

Analyst Rosemary Kelanic, speaking to Canadian public broadcaster CBC, said the US probably used a “combination of human intelligence on the ground, potentially through Israeli assets, as well as signals intelligence and the ability of the United States to use over-the-horizon and, in this case, local assets to target pretty much anywhere on the planet that it wants to hit”.

The CIA had also been tracking Khamenei’s location for months, according to The Times, even before the 12-day war. Since that conflict, the US had intensified its surveillance of Khamenei, as well as of the IRGC, in general, monitoring how officials communicated and moved during stress periods, the Times reported.

Trump had also referred to US intelligence regarding the supreme leader’s location last year.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump said on June 17, posting on his Truth Social platform amid the Iran-Israel conflict that lasted from June 13 to 24.

“He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin,” Trump posted.

At the time, Israel presented a plan to assassinate Khamenei, but Trump rejected it, fearing wider regional conflict, according to reporting by the The Associated Press, which cited officials familiar with the talks.

How did the strike on Khamenei unfold?

Although Israel and the US had planned to hit the country at night to take advantage of darkness, as was the method during the 12-day war’s Operation Midnight Hammer, the CIA’s information about the gathering moved up the timing of Saturday’s attacks, the Times reported.

It is understood that Israel unilaterally launched the attack on Khamenei, using US intelligence, according to reports by multiple US media outlets.

Speaking to CBS, Republican Congressman Mike Turner said the US was not directly involved in the assassination. Turner said he had confirmed from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who “was very clear in the answer that we did not target Khamenei, and we were not targeting the leadership in Iran”.

According to media reports, Israeli fighter jets took off from a base in Israel around 6:00am local time (04:00 GMT) on Saturday. It is unclear how many aircraft were involved or how many bombs were dropped, but it was reported there had been “a few” fighter jets all armed with “long-range and highly accurate munitions”.

Their travel to Iran took about two hours, at which point they dropped bombs on the Tehran compound where Khamenei was located. While the top military officials had gathered in one building at the time of the hit, Khamenei was in another building nearby, The Times reported.

Simultaneously, the US military’s Cyber Command division appeared to block communications signals in Iran. In his briefing after the assassination, Dan Caine, the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said “the first movers were US Cybercom and US Spacecom, layering non-kinetic effects, disrupting and degrading and blinding Iran’s ability to see, communicate and respond.”

Satellite imagery of the compound following the strikes showed smoke rising from the rubble of the buildings.

On Sunday, Iranian authorities announced a three-member leadership council to temporarily lead the country: President Masoud Pezeshkian; the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei; and a member of the Guardian Council, Ayatollah Alireza Arafi.

Which other leaders were targeted?

Several Iranian military leaders were assassinated alongside Khameini, as well as in follow-up strikes afterwards.

About a dozen members of Khamenei’s family and close entourage, along with 40 other senior Iranian leaders, died in the Saturday attacks, military officials in Israel told The Guardian newspaper in the UK.

At least 13 top defence officials were confirmed killed at the Saturday meeting and in targeted strikes on other locations on the same day, including:

Mohammad Pakpour, Commander of the IRGC
Azis Nasirzadeh, Defence Minister
Ali Shamkani, Head of the National Defence Council
Seyyed Majid Mousavi, Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force
Abdolrahim Mousavi, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces
Mohammad Shirazi, Head of Military Office of the Supreme Leader
Salah Asadi – Head of the Intelligence Directorate
Hossein Habal Amelian – Chairman of the Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND)
Reza Mozaffari Nia, Former SPND Chairman
Mohammad Baseri, Senior Intelligence Official
Bahram Hosseini Motlagh, Head of Operations Planning, General Staff of Armed Forces
Gholamreza Rezian, Commander of Police Intelligence
Mohsen Darrebaghi, Deputy for Logistics and Support, General Staff of Armed Forces

Who else has been targeted?

Joint US-Israeli strikes have continued to hit locations across Iran since Saturday, striking several hospitals and schools in residential areas, including the Gandhi hospital.

At least 787 people have died according to the Iranian Red Crescent, and many hundreds more have been wounded.

A strike which appeared to target former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the weekend hit a high school in Narmak, eastern Tehran, and killed at least two children.

Ahmadinejad, a nationalist who served between 2005 and 2013, was initially reported dead, but later on Sunday, Iran Wire said he was alive and unharmed. Three of his security detail, members of the IRGC, were killed, but Ahmadinejad’s residence was not damaged, Iran Wire said, quoting a source close to him.

In retaliatory strikes, Iran has targeted Israel, as well as US military assets in Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Oman.

On Monday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth justified the attacks as necessary to cripple Iran’s nuclear and missile ambitions. President Trump has also said the strikes will continue until the US’s objectives of what he called “peace in the Middle East” are met.

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