How Israel lured Ayatollah to his doom… then blew him up with a missile from space

Israeli generals lulled Iran into a false sense of security in the hours leading up to Ali Khamenei’s assassination by leaving their headquarters for fake Shabbat celebrations before sneaking back in disguise, the IDF has revealed.

The new information explains how the Ayatollah felt safe enough to emerge from hiding for a meeting at his palace with top officials.

Israeli fighters then launched a barrage of 30 missiles, including state-of-the-art Blue Sparrows which travel to the edge of space before hitting their targets.

The aim of the operation was to take the Iranian despot by surprise, to ensure that he and other top officials had no time to react and escape.

But the entire operation was only made possible by the Israeli leadership’s deception.

Concerned that a buildup of activity around the IDF’s central military complex in Tel Aviv would indicate to Iran that a major operation was imminent, a plan of deception was executed.

The military said: ‘On the Friday of the attack, the IDF deliberately gave the impression that the military was shutting down for the weekend.

‘We released photos and information suggesting that IDF personnel and top leadership were going home for Shabbat dinner.’

It comes as:

• The UAE announced it had been struck by a ballistic missile and six drones in the latest attack on the country 
• US and Israeli officials claimed CIA-backed Kurdish forces are preparing for a potential ground offensive against Iran’s regime’ in the country’s northwest 
• The Pentagon and at least one Gulf state entered talks to buy Ukrainian-made interceptors to help counter Iran’s Shahed drones 
• The Kremlin declared that Iran has not approached Moscow with a request for arms supplies 
• Spain is to join France, Italy and the Netherlands in sending its navy to protect Cyprus – including a British military base – in the latest humiliation for the Royal Navy 

High-ranking generals made sure they were seen leaving the headquarters and back to their families.

But they did not stay home for long, instead discreetly returning later, with many going back to the headquarters in disguise.

On Saturday morning, Israeli jets, including F-15s took off at 7.30am Iran time, arriving in position two hours later.

IDF jets launched the Blue Sparrow missiles at 9.40am, with at least 30 being sent to the Ayatollah’s compound in the heart of Tehran.

Blue Sparrows, which are produced in Israel and have a range of 1,240 miles, weigh around 1.9 tonnes and were originally created to test air defence systems.

But since their creation in 2013, they have been adapted to be used as an air-to-surface missile due to their high speeds.

Their ability to exit and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere makes them incredibly difficult to intercept.

After being launched from fighter jets, booster rockets take the missile into space. The re-entry vehicle separates from the booster and locks onto a target.

After this, the missile re-enters the atmosphere and hits the target.

The Sparrow series of missiles, which also include Black and Silver variants, take inspiration from USSR Scud missiles, as well as Iranian Shahab-3 missiles.

As the missiles were fired, the IDF simultaneously disrupted around a dozen mobile phone towers near Pasteur Street, making phones appear busy when called and preventing Khamenei’s security from receiving possible warnings.

During the strike, senior Iranian national security officials were in another part of the building.

Two high-level military leaders – Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, and commander of the IRGC Major General Mohammad Pakpour – and Khamenei’s daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law were also obliterated in the Tehran strikes.

The wife of Iran’s Supreme Leader, 79-year-old Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, was also killed. As was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

They had also gained access to almost all of Tehran’s cameras, which are used extensively by Iran to spy on regime opponents and its own population, and tracked the movements of key bodyguards.

Images were said to be transmitted back to Tel Aviv and southern Israel, allowing Mossad to develop intimate knowledge on the guards’ addresses, work schedules and who they were assigned to protect.

One camera angle proved especially helpful and allowed agents to track where bodyguards parked their personal cars when arriving at the Supreme Leader’s compound on Pasteur Street in the heart of Tehran.

The hacks were part of a years-long intelligence campaign which eventually led to the killing of Khamenei.

Combined with Israeli AI tools and algorithms which sifted through a vast mountain of data on Iran’s leadership and their movements, the source allowed them to trace Khamenei to the meeting where he was hit.

Once Israel and the US became aware of where Khamenei was holding his meeting, they decided they had to act.

On the sixth day of the bloody war in the Middle East, the IDF said that its military campaign against Iran had ‘shaken’ the country’s clerical leadership, adding that it was continuing to ‘deepen the damage’.

‘The goal of the operation is to inflict severe damage on the Iranian terror regime until it removes the existential threat… And we continue to deepen the damage to the regime,’ military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a televised briefing.