Inside the 'Intelligence Trail' That Led to Khamenei’s Assassination

The assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a meticulously planned intelligence campaign. According to a Financial Times report citing two people familiar with the matter, Israeli operatives allegedly hacked Tehran’s traffic cameras many years ago, encrypting the footage and transmitting it to servers in Tel Aviv and southern Israel.

According to the report, one camera offered a particularly advantageous angle, enabling authorities to identify where the men typically parked their personal vehicles and giving them insight into the routine workings of the 86-year-old leader’s compound.

Before the assassination on February 28, intelligence officers reportedly obtained personal details of Khamenei’s security guards, their hours of duty, frequently travelled routes, and the people they were tasked with guarding and transporting. Authorities referred to this as a “pattern of life”.

On the day of the attack, Israeli authorities allegedly disrupted mobile phone towers near Pasteur Street, causing calls to register as busy and preventing members of Khamenei’s security team from receiving possible warnings.

“We knew Tehran like we know Jerusalem. 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,” an Israeli intelligence officer told FT.

Israel’s secretive 8200 cyberwarfare unit, known for its ability to collect large amounts of data, also played a key role in the attack.

An Israeli intelligence officer claimed that “we took their eyes first” during the attack. A missile called Sparrow, which can target even small things from more than 1,000 kilometres away, made it possible.

The Israeli Ministry of Defence previously selected a short-range Black Sparrow and the medium-range Blue Sparrow and Silver Sparrow for testing the U.S.-Israeli Arrow missile defence systems. They can be launched above land and over sea during a mission.

Even so, not all information from the attack has been made public because authorities said the same methods could be used to trackother targets.

The attack on Iran was reportedly planned months earlier. Still, the timing of the operation was adjusted after U.S. and Israeli intelligence confirmed Khamenei and his team would be at his compound on February 28.

Once officials confirmed that Khamenei’s meeting was proceeding as scheduled, 30 precision munitions were fired at the location. “The decision to strike in the morning rather than at night allowed Israel to achieve tactical surprise for the second time, despite heavy Iranian preparedness,” the Israeli military said.