Did the CIA help Israel kill Iran’s Supreme Leader? Here’s what happened in Tehran

Tehran: The killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other top officials came after close intelligence sharing between the United States and Israel, according to people familiar with the operation, The New York Times reported.

Shortly before the US and Israel were set to strike, the CIA identified perhaps its most critical target: Khamenei himself. Officials said the agency had been tracking the supreme leader for months, studying his movements and patterns to determine likely locations. Intelligence eventually revealed that a meeting of top Iranian officials would take place on Saturday morning at a leadership compound in central Tehran, with Khamenei confirmed to be in attendance.

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The timing of the strike was adjusted based on this intelligence, giving the U.S. and Israel a window to achieve a decisive early victory: eliminating senior Iranian officials and killing Khamenei.

“The remarkably swift removal of Iran’s supreme leader reflected the close coordination and intelligence sharing between the United States and Israel in the run-up to the attack,” the report said. It also highlighted the failure of Iran’s leaders to take adequate precautions despite clear warnings that both countries were preparing for war.

The CIA shared its intelligence, which officials described as offering “high fidelity” on Khamenei’s position, with Israel. Using a combination of US and its own intelligence, Israel carried out a carefully planned operation it had been preparing for months.

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Originally, the strike had been planned under the cover of darkness, but officials said the timing was changed to capitalise on the intelligence about the gathering at the government compound, which houses the offices of the Iranian presidency, the supreme leader, and the National Security Council.

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Israeli planners determined that senior defence officials, including Mohammad Pakpour, commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Aziz Nasirzadeh, Iran’s defence minister; Admiral Ali Shamkhani, head of the Military Council; Seyyed Majid Mousavi, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force; and Mohammad Shirazi, deputy intelligence minister, would be present.