Author: Farnaz Fassihi, Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti
\ Published on: 30/08/2025 | 00:00:00

AI Summary:
\ Targeting Iran’s Leaders, Israel Found a Weak Link: Their Bodyguards Israel was able to track the movements of key Iranian figures and assassinate them during the 12-day war this spring by following the cellphones carried by members of their security forces. The meeting was so secret that only the attendees, a handful of top Iranian government officials and military commanders, knew the time and location. Despite all the precautions, Israeli jets dropped six bombs on top of the bunker soon after the Israelis had been led to the meeting by hacking the phones of bodyguards who had accompanied the Iranian leaders to the site and waited outside. Israel’s tracking of the guards has not been previously reported. Iranian security guards’ careless use of mobile phones over several years played a central role in allowing Israeli military intelligence to hunt Iranian nuclear scientists and military commanders. Israeli Air Force to swoop in and kill them with missiles and bombs during the first week of the June war. The account of Israel’s strike on the meeting is based on interviews with five senior Iranian officials, two members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and nine Israeli military and intelligence officials. Iranian officials and a member of the Revolutionary Guards said Iran quietly arrested or placed under house arrest dozens of people suspected of spying for Israel. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied a connection to those so accused. Spy games between Iran and Israel have been a constant feature of a decades-long shadow war between the two countries. Israelis had been tracking senior Iranian nuclear scientists since the end of 2022. Iran's growing awareness of the threat to senior figures came to be seen as an opportunity. Iranian officials had long suspected that Israel was tracking the movements of senior military commanders and nuclear scientists through their mobile phones. Military commanders, nuclear scientists and government officials have been banned from using smartphones, social media and messaging apps. The protection of senior officials, military commanders and nuclear scientists is the responsibility of an elite brigade within the Revolutionary Guards called Ansar al-Mehdi. Gen. Mohamad Javad Assadi, one of the youngest senior commanders in the Guards. Iran’s minister of intelligence said it foiled an Israeli assassination attempt on 23 senior officials but did not provide their names or details of their positions and ranks. It said in the months leading up to the war, Iran had discovered and foiled 13 plots by Israel that aimed to kill 35 senior military and government officials. Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence service, has arrested dozens of Israelis and charged them with being paid agents of Iran, accused of helping collect intelligence about potential targets for Iranian strikes on Israel. Israel has made killing Iran’s top nuclear scientists an urgent priority as a way to set back the nation’s nuclear program. Israeli officials concluded that the campaign of sabotage and explosions in the enrichment apparatus had only a marginal impact. General Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ air force, assembled his leadership team at the very start of the war to monitor intelligence about possible Israeli strikes. Israeli warplanes swooped in and carried out a pinpoint strike on the bunker where General Hajadeh had taken refuge, killing him and other top commanders. The ability to track the bodyguards also helped lead the Israelis to the June 16 meeting. Mr. Pezeshkian found a narrow opening Mr. Pezeshkian recounted the attack in a meeting with senior clerics. He said if Israel had succeeded in killing the country’s top officials it would have created chaos in the country. “People,” he said, “would have lost hope”

Original: 2457 words
\ Summary: 605 words
\ Percent reduction: 75.38%

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