‘All traffic cameras in Tehran were hacked for years’: How Israel, US planned to assassinate Iran’s supreme leader Khamenei

One particular camera angle hacked over the years in Tehran proved particularly valuable, the Financial Times reported, citing two individuals familiar with the intelligence operation. One of the sources said a camera revealed that trusted and disciplined bodyguards of senior Iranian officials, including Khamenei, liked to park their personal vehicles and go about daily routines within a tightly secured compound.

The announcement of Khamenei’s death, which Iran later confirmed, triggered parallel mourning and cheering, which could be heard on the streets of Tehran amid clouds of smoke in the Pasteur district, where he usually lived.

Advanced algorithms complemented the intelligence files of personnel protecting top Iranian officials, compiling information such as home addresses, work schedules, commuting routes and – crucially – which officials they were typically tasked with protecting.

The result was what intelligence professionals describe as “patterns of life”.

The above was part of a long-running intelligence effort that ultimately set the stage for the assassination Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – Paramount leader of Iran since 1989.

This real-time stream of surveillance – one of hundreds of intelligence sources – was not the only method Israel and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used to tell when Khamenei, 86, would appear at his offices on Saturday morning and who would be with him.

Nor was it the only strategy.

Long before the attack, “we knew Tehran the same way we know Jerusalem”, the report quoted a current Israeli intelligence official as saying. “And when you know (a place) as well as you know the street you grew up on, you notice something that’s out of place.”

The comprehensive intelligence portrait of Tehran, the capital of its main rival Iran, was reportedly built through painstaking data collection. Israel’s signals intelligence unit – Unit 8200 – provided sophisticated signals intelligence capabilities; The Mossad cultivated human sources abroad; And military intelligence processed large amounts of information into daily operational briefs.

Israel also applied a mathematical technique called social network analysis to sift through billions of data points, identify unexpected centers of influence and select new targets for monitoring or elimination, according to a person familiar with the process. The output of this system was single: the target.

“In Israeli intelligence culture, targeting intelligence is the most essential strategic issue – it is designed to enable a strategy,” said Itai Shapira, a brigadier general in the Israeli military reserve who has served in its intelligence directorate for 25 years. “If the decision-maker decides whether to assassinate someone, the culture in Israel is: ‘We will provide targeting intelligence’.”

Over the decades, Israel has carried out hundreds of assassinations abroad, targeting terrorist leaders, nuclear scientists, chemical engineers – and at times killing innocent bystanders. Whether such aggressive use of technological superiority has provided a lasting strategic advantage remains hotly debated inside and outside Israel. kill a prominent person As Khamenei.

The country’s intelligence edge was made evident during the 12-day war last June, when more than a dozen Iranian nuclear scientists and senior military officers were killed within minutes of the initial firefight. See the latest information on the Iran-US conflict here

“The first thing we did was take his eyes,” said an intelligence officer. During both the June conflict and recent operations, Israeli pilots deployed variants of the Sparrow missile capable of attacking small targets such as dining tables from more than 1,000 kilometers away – well beyond the reach of Iran’s air defenses.

Not every aspect of the latest mission is publicly known, and some details may be classified to protect the ongoing sources and methods.

Several current and former Israeli intelligence officials interviewed said that eliminating Khamenei was ultimately a political choice, not merely a technical accomplishment.

When US and Israeli intelligence determined that Khamenei would hold a Saturday morning meeting in his office near Pasteur Street, officials saw the opportunity to attack him along with other senior leaders as particularly advantageous.

He assessed that once open war fully erupted, tracking such data would become even more difficult as Iranian officials retreated into hardened underground bunkers.

Publicly, Khamenei had considered the possibility of assassination and described his death as unimportant to the fate of the Islamic Republic. Some Iran analysts said they even feared martyrdom.

Nevertheless, according to one interviewee, during the war, he took precautions. The person said, “It was unusual for him not to be in his bunker – he had two bunkers – and if he had been, Israel would not have been able to reach him with the bombs they had.”

Even during the fierce fighting of June 2025, Israel made no known attempts to bomb Khamenei. Instead, it focused on the leadership of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), missile systems and stockpiles, and Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and scientists.

Although Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened action against Iran in recent weeks and has assembled an “armada” offshore, diplomatic talks over Iran’s nuclear program were expected to continue.

Oman, playing the role of mediator, said tehran Was ready to make concessions to avoid war and described the latest meeting as meaningful.

Trump publicly complained that negotiations were progressing too slowly. However, privately, according to a person familiar with the matter, he was “dissatisfied with Iranian responses”, clearing the way for conflict.

The strike had reportedly been planned for several months, but the timing was adjusted after officials confirmed that Khamenei and senior officials would gather at his Tehran compound on Saturday morning.

Yet a target of Khamenei’s stature required absolute certainty. Israeli doctrine calls for two independent senior officers to verify with high confidence both the presence of the target and the identities of those accompanying him, the FT reports.

According to two people familiar with the matter cited in the report, Israeli intelligence drew attention to Signals Intelligence Unit 8200 – which included compromised traffic cameras and infiltrated mobile networks – indicating that the meeting was going on as scheduled.

Both men said U.S. intelligence reportedly has an even more marketable source: a human asset. The CIA declined to comment.

The report quoted General Dan Kane, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, as saying that the US military cleared the way for Israeli warplanes to bomb Khamenei’s compound by launching cyber attacks, disrupting, weakening and obscuring Iran’s ability to observe, communicate and respond.

Kane said the compound was attacked in broad daylight following a “trigger event” carried out by the Israel Defense Forces with US intelligence support.

According to a former senior Israeli intelligence official, Israeli aircraft, which had been flying for hours to synchronize their arrival, dropped 30 precision-guided munitions at Khamenei’s compound.

Trump told Fox News the Iranians were meeting for breakfast when they were killed.

The Israeli military said that timing provided a significant advantage. It added, “The decision to attack in the morning rather than at night allowed Israel to achieve a second tactical surprise, despite heavy Iranian preparations.”

According to Shine, Sharon told Dagan, “‘Whatever the Mossad is doing is well and good.'” “‘I need Iran. That’s your goal.'”

“And ever since then, that’s been the goal,” she said.

Over the years, Israel dismantled Iran’s nuclear program, assassinated scientists, countered proxy forces and destroyed Syrian military infrastructure after Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power.

However, Iranian intelligence agencies proved formidable. In 2022, a group linked to Iranian security services released data allegedly taken from the phone of the Mossad chief’s wife. According to Israeli prosecutors, during the 2025 war, Iran allegedly hacked CCTV cameras in Jerusalem to assess war damage in real time, purchased photographs of missile defense systems and mapped a senior politician’s jogging route through bribes.

Shine said, the second turning point was October 7, 2023 Hamas attackwhich Israel claims was backed by Iran and which reshaped Israeli thinking about whether foreign leaders should remain off limits even during war.

The assassination of heads of state carries enormous operational and political risk. Unsuccessful efforts can enhance a leader’s stature, as was the case with several failed CIA plots against Fidel Castro. Even successful operations can produce unexpected results.

But Shine said Israel’s recent intelligence successes – including the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail in 2024 haniyeh A secret $300 million effort to equip thousands of Hezbollah pagers and radios with explosives in Tehran created its own momentum.

“In Hebrew, we say, ‘With food comes appetite’,” she said. “In other words, the more you have, the more you want.”