Israel's Precision Strike on Iran: A Decades-Long Intelligence and Military Operation

Israel stunned and hobbled Iran last week with a precision strike that targeted high-level officials, nuclear sites, and military systems. Guided by spies and artificial intelligence, the Israeli military used warplanes and drones smuggled into Iran to weaken the country's air defenses and missile systems. The operation, known as "Operation Rising Lion," was years in the making and involved the Mossad and military working together to lay the groundwork for the attack.

Key Takeaways:

• The Israeli military used a combination of human intelligence and artificial intelligence to select targets and analyze information gathered from various sources.
• The Mossad smuggled precision weapons into Iran, including small, armed drones, which were prepositioned to strike from close range.
• The agency worked with a mix of people, both locals and Israelis, to plant the drones and other weapons near Iranian surface-to-air missile sites.
• Targets were chosen if they were determined to be a threat to Israel, such as being deeply associated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
• Among the high-level military officials killed in the strike were Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, and Gen. Mohammed Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces.
• The Mossad relied on spies to identify top nuclear scientists and members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
• The attack was a culmination of years of work by the Mossad to target Iran's nuclear program, according to Sima Shine, the former Mossad research director.
• Israel's element of surprise was enhanced by Iranian officials' apparent assumption that Israel wouldn't attack while talks over its nuclear program were ongoing with the U.S.

Statistics:

• At least eight members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, including the head of its missile program, were killed in a single Israeli strike on an underground bunker.
• Nearly a third of Moscow's strategic bomber fleet was destroyed or damaged by cheaply made drones snuck into Russian territory in a Ukrainian operation earlier this month.
• Iran's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, though it was the only country without the bomb to enrich uranium close to weapons-grade levels.
• Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, has carried out numerous covert attacks on the Iranian nuclear program over the years, including cyberattacks and the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists.
• In the 2000s, Iranian centrifuges used for enriching uranium were destroyed by the Stuxnet computer virus, believed to be an Israeli and American creation.

Sources:

• Conversations with 10 current and former Israeli intelligence and military officials
• Sima Shine, former Mossad research director
• Naysan Rafati, Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group
• Yossi Kuperwasser, retired general and former military intelligence researcher
• Amir Avivi, retired Israeli Brig. Gen. and head of the Israel Defense and Security Forum think tank
• The Associated Press