The US and Israel launched a coordinated strike on Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, taking advantage of crucial intelligence that indicated his presence at a compound in central Tehran on Saturday morning.
According to reports from the New York Times, the intelligence came from the CIA and was passed on to Israel to carry out the actual strike. The attack occurred at around 09:40 local time, with Israeli jets firing 30 bombs at the compound.
The strike was part of a wider campaign, with other sites in the Iranian capital also being hit, including the office of President Masoud Pezeshkian. Three senior Iranian defence officials have been confirmed dead by Iran, including Defence Council secretary Ali Shamkhani, Defence Minister Brig Gen Aziz Nasirzadeh and IRGC commander Gen Mohammad Pakpour.
Background to the Strike
For months, the US and Israel had been tracking the supreme leader's movements, using secret methods that may have included human sources or technical tracking of Iranian individuals. This intelligence allowed them to identify a window of opportunity to launch the strike.
US President Donald Trump hinted at the methods used in a social media post, stating that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was "unable to avoid our intelligence and highly sophisticated tracking systems".
International Reaction
British military personnel at a base in Bahrain were reportedly "within several hundred yards" of a strike, according to the defence secretary. Meanwhile, about 1,000 British Iranians attended a rally in Manchester city centre over the weekend.
Israel and the US continue to launch strikes on Iran, while Iran steps up attacks across the region in retaliation for the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The situation remains fluid, with the implications of the killing still unclear.
