Launching a full-fledged attack on Iran on Thursday (12th June) under its ‘Operation Rising Lion’, Israel, once again, demonstrated its military and intelligence prowess in front of the world. Israel carried out precise missile strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, military commanders and ballistic missile facilities. Israel’s strikes resulted in some high-profile casualties in Iran including the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, General Mohammad Bagheri, who led the country’s armed forces, and General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who ran the ballistic missile program of the Revolutionary guard, Senior Revolutionary Guards commander Gholam Ali Rashid and some top nuclear scientists.
In a display of exceptional intelligence accuracy, Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, reportedly tricked the top Iranian Air Force commanders into gathering for a meeting and eliminated them in its strikes. An Israeli official told Fox News that Israel gathered some specific information using which it influenced the behaviour of Iran’s top commanders. “We carried out specific activities to help us learn about them, and then used that information to influence their behaviour,” the official was quoted as saying.
“We knew this would lead them to meet-but more importantly, we knew how to keep them there,” the official added. The official said that the strikes proved to be more effective than anticipated.
Israel was able to gather all crucial intelligence by planting its agents deep inside Iran, including at the highest level. “The Mossad worked with a huge number of people—a mass of agents deep inside Iran, operating at the highest level of penetration imaginable. Some of these agents were retrained as commando fighters to carry out mission-critical operations,” the official revealed.
The attacks involved three-layers of strikes. “We eliminated vast areas of Iran’s surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missile infrastructure, a massive number of senior scientists, and large portions of their air defence systems,” the official divulged. Israel even set up a drone base and place precision missiles inside Iran, which were activated to coordinate with Israel’s Air Force.
“We established a drone base inside Iran, and at zero hour, Mossad operatives retrieved them from hiding spots. We placed precision missiles on numerous vehicles and embedded additional missiles throughout the country, hidden inside rocks. We activated this entire array in precise coordination with the Israeli air force,” said the official.
Israel’s reasons to attack Iran
Israel’s strikes against Iran came after the talks between the US and Iran regarding the latter’s nuclear program broke down. The US and Iran have had 5 rounds of discussion so far since April 2024 and a sixth round was to take place this month before which Israel launched an attack on Iran. Israel has been accusing Iran of enriching uranium to weapon-grade, which has been denied by Iran. Considering Iran’s open support for terrorist organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel views the possibility of Iran developing a nuclear weapon as a threat to its existence. As a result, it launched a massive attack on Iran targeting its nuclear facilities to eliminate its chances of developing a nuclear weapon.
Israel’s attack on Iran is said to be the most intense attack on Iran since the Israel-Iran war of the 1980s. Israeli airstrikes were retaliated by Iran, which launched hundreds of ballistic missiles into Israel’s airspace most of which were neutralised by the country’s air defence system.
How Israeli intelligence eliminated 30 terrorists at once
Israeli’s intelligence agency has exhibited its exceptional capabilities in the past as well. Last year in September, Mossad carried out one its most effective anti-terrorist operations against the Islamic terrorist outfit Hezbollah in Lebanon using pagers booby-trapped with explosives. The sophisticated attack left thousands of Hezbollah terrorists injured and over 30 dead.
The operation was meticulously carried out following the ghastly terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, 2023. The preparation for the pager explosion has been going on for years before the attack. The long-term operation began by setting up a legitimate company in Hungary to supply communication devices to Hezbollah, which was duped into buying thousands of rigged walkie-talkies and pagers without realising they were made in Israel. Israel carefully planted booby-traps in the devices for almost ten years, using them to eavesdrop, while retaining the capacity to remotely detonate these walkie-talkies.
