NYT: CIA tracked Khamenei for months before Iran strike

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been tracking Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for months, gathering detailed intelligence on his movements and patterns, multiple sources familiar with the operation told The New York Times. 

Officials say the agency gained increasing confidence about Khamenei's locations.

Then, the intelligence community learned that a meeting of top Iranian officials would take place on Saturday (February 28) morning at a leadership compound in central Tehran. “Most critically, the C.I.A. learned that the supreme leader would be at the site,” said a source familiar with the intelligence.

The new information prompted the United States and Israel to adjust the timing of a planned strike. “The information provided a window of opportunity for the two countries to achieve a critical and early victory: the elimination of top Iranian officials and the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei,” according to officials with knowledge of the decisions.

The C.I.A. passed intelligence offering “high fidelity” on Khamenei’s position to Israel, enabling precise operational planning, sources said.

Israel, relying on both U.S. intelligence and its own, executed an operation that had been under planning for months, aimed at the targeted killing of Iran’s senior leaders. Initially, the strike had been planned under the cover of night, but the timing was shifted to exploit the intelligence about the Saturday morning gathering.

The compound targeted houses offices of the Iranian presidency, the supreme leader, and the National Security Council. Israeli intelligence had determined that the gathering would include top Iranian defense officials, among them: Mohammad Pakpour, commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Aziz Nasirzadeh, defense minister; Admiral Ali Shamkhani, head of the Military Council; Seyyed Majid Mousavi, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force; and Mohammad Shirazi, deputy intelligence minister.

“The operation began around 6 a.m. in Israel, as fighter jets took off from their bases,” sources said. The strike involved a relatively small number of aircraft, equipped with long-range, highly accurate munitions.

Two hours and five minutes after takeoff, at approximately 9:40 a.m. Tehran time, long-range missiles struck the compound. “At the time of the strike, senior Iranian national security officials were in one building at the compound. Mr. Khamenei was in another nearby building,” officials said.

By Khagan Isayev